OSHA Compliance

Blosser, F. Primer on occupational safety and health. Washington, D.C. The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., 1992. 

Accident/incident prevention techniques. New York Taylor Francis, Inc., 2001. 

Eidson. Handbook of OSHA construction safety health (second edition). Boca Raton, FL CRC Press/Taylor Francis, 2006. 

United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Field Inspection Reference Manual (FIRM) (OSHA Instruction CPL 2.103). Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of Labor, September 26, 1994. 

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Business Legal Reports, Inc., 39 Academy St., Madison, Coim., 06443, which offers U.S. Federal and state environmental laws and regulations, as well as such newsletters as Environmental Manager s Compliance Advisor 2rs A OSHA Compliance Advisoty. 

This knowledge is also important in order to determine if air tests conducted by OSHA compliance officers are valid. For example, if threshold limit value in the health standard is an 8-hour time-weighted average, the air sample should be obtained by sampling over the entire shift in the employee s breathing zone. It cannot be measured by a few short term samples, even if spaced over the full shift unless the worker is in a relatively fixed location with no variation in his work procedure or in the process. Such an event is generally the exception rather than the rule. 

Unless established monitoring practices are conducted by plant personnel or the OSHA compliance officer, the results are of limited value in determining compliance with a standard, and what is more important, protecting the worker s health. The conduct of air monitoring by untrained, or poorly trained, persons relegates the program to a "numbers game" which serves no useful purpose. 

Wliat we have included is only a small part of a much longer document available in its entirety at the address shown or on the Web. We provide the complete table of contents so that you get a good idea of the subjects covered and the amount of detail taken to cover them. After the table of contents, we have taken several sections applying to working with hazardous substances. We believe that OSHA has chosen these items to ensure a safe and healthful workplace. COSHOs will use this format when performing an OSHA compliance audit on incinerator sites. 

Occupational Safety and Health Division 443 Lafayette Rd. St. Paul, MN 55155 USA Phone +1 651 296-2116 -tl 877 470-6742 Fax -K 651 297-2527 E-mail OSHA.Compliance state.mn.us Web site www.doli.state.mn.us/mnosha... 

Employers must admit OSHA compliance officers into their plant sites for safety inspections with no advance notice. A search warrant may be required to show probable cause. 

Before we discuss the basic goals of an effective emergency response plan from an OSHA compliance point of view, we should define emergency response. Considering that individual facilities are different, with different dangers and different needs, defining emergency response is not always easy. However, for our purposes, we use the definition provided by CoVan (1995, 54) ... 

These questions stress the point we emphasize here. Again, OSHA is not normally concerned about the environment, unless contamination of the environment (at the work site) might adversely impact the workers safety and health. The neighbors Again, OSHA s focus is the workers. One OSHA compliance officer explained to us that if the employer takes every necessary step to protect the employees from harm involving the use or production of hazardous materials, then the surrounding community should have little to fear. 

This statement is puzzling to us. We asked the same OSHA compliance officer about those incidents beyond the control of the employer—about accidents that could not only put employees in harm s way, but also endanger the surrounding community. The answer Well, that s the EPA s bag—we only worry about the work site and the worker. ... 

Wang, C. C. K. 1994. OSHA Compliance and Management Handbook. Noyes Data Corp., Park Ridge, NJ. 

The comparison is conducted by identifying those occupational environments which will pass or fail each set of decision criteria. This paper deals only with occupational stresses which pose a chronic health hazard acute health hazards require different treatment. The most surprising conclusion is that there are some commonly encountered work environments which are very likely to pass the NIOSH Action Level Test even though there is better than a 50% chance that an OSHA compliance officer collecting six samples during one visit would be able to identify a citable violation of an 8-hour PEL. 

Figure 5. Decision contours resulting from OSHA Compliance Criteria AL = 0.835, and UAL = 1.165. Each marks the location of one of the charts from Figure 1. Note that P(NOT OK) = probability of a citation based on one sample.

Decisions Made with the OSHA Compliance Criteria. The problem of the OSHA compliance officer is significantly different than the problem addressed by the NI0SH Action Level. The compliance officer is not nearly so interested in how many exposures exceed the standard as in whether it can be shown with 95% confidence that the standard was exceeded on the basis of the sample which was collected. Thus, the OSHA Compliance Criteria is not a function of workplace variability, GSD, but only of the random sampling and analytical errors, CV (5). As explained earlier, CV = 0.1 for all illustrations in this paper. In this case, the OSHA Decision Criteria is characterized by AL = 0.8355 and UAL =... 

It is informative to compare the decision regions of the OSHA Compliance Criteria as shown in Figure 5, with the Average Exposure Limit Concept of Figure 2. Five of the six workplaces identified as OK in Figure 2 are likely to be declared OK by an OSHA compliance officer. However, only one of the three unacceptable workplaces of Figure 2 is likely to be declared NOT OK by the criteria of Figure 5. 

The accuracy requirement developed for the methods had to apply to a single sample analysis, and not require an average of the analyses of several samples, because OSHA compliance determinations may be made on the basis of a single sample. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, Compliance Directive [3] identifies the intent of a Mechanical Integrity program ... 

The Nonmandatory OSHA Compliance Guidelines—Appendix C [2] expands on the description to say ... 

It would be difficult to compose a conclusion any better than part of Appendix C of the Nonmandatory OSHA Compliance Guidelines [2], which says ... 

J. J. Keller Associates. OSHA Compliance Manual-29 CFR 1910 Plant Safety. April 1997 OSHA-19. 

Remember that all OSHA compliance programs must be in writing. 

Have an authorized employee representative accompany the OSHA compliance officer during the inspection tour. 

Respond to questions from the OSHA compliance officer, particularly if there is no authorized employee representative accompanying the compliance officer on the inspection walkaround. ... 

Under Section 8(e) of the act, the workers representative has a right to accompany an OSHA compliance officer (also referred to as a compliance safety and health officer. 

Cooperate with the OSHA compliance officer conducting an inspection if he or she inquires about safety and health conditions in the workplace. 

This section discusses each of the elements of PSM in terms of OSHA compliance. The elements, which were listed in Table 1.1, are repeated below in Table 2.9. Each of the elements (with the exception of Trade Secrets) is discussed in depth in the remaining chapters of this book. Specific guidance for each of the elements with respect to the OSHA standard is provided below. Each section provides the OSHA standard, along with the nonbinding guidance that accompanies the standard. In some cases, details that are immaterial to technical compliance are omitted. 

OSHA uses workplace inspections for enforcing its rules. OSHA personnel may conduct workplace inspections unannounced. Except under special circumstances, it is a crime punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both to give an employer prior notice of an inspection. When OSHA compliance officers arrive to conduct an inspection, they are required to present their credentials. This authorizes them to enter any site or facility where work is taking place. They may inspect, at reasonable times, any condition, facility, machine, equipment, materials, etc. They may question in private any employee or other person formally associated with the company. Under special circumstances, employers may be given up to a maximum of 24-hours notice of an inspection. 

After an inspection is scheduled, the OSHA compliance officer presents their credentials to a company official and conducts an opening conference with pertinent company officials and employee representatives. During the conference, the following information is explained ... 

Interfering in any way with OSHA compliance officers in the performance of their duties. 

Cooperate with the OSHA compliance officer conducting an inspection. 

OSHA compliance officers can enter workplaces at reasonable times where work is taking place, inspect condition, facility machine, equipment, or materials, and question in private an employee or other person formally associated with the company. OSHA is empowered to issue citations and/or set penalties. Citations are issued for (a) other than serious violations, (b) willful violations, (c) repeat violations, and (d) failure to correct prior violations. 

Safety professionals should be aware that under the OSHA multiemployer worksite policy, more than one employer can be cited for alleged violations on a worksite. Specifically, the OSHA compliance inspector is instructed to conduct a two-step analysis to determine whether more than one employer can be cited for an alleged violation. The two-step process includes ... 

Acqnire an understanding of the OSHA compliance inspection processes. 

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