Public Citizen calls for stronger protection for workers exposed to beryllium
May 14, 2014
Protections against exposure to the chemical beryllium for workers are far too weak, especially in the construction industry, where an estimated 23,000 construction workers come in contact with beryllium every day while performing open-air blasting.
That’s the opinion of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. It asked for stronger protections for workers in 2001 when it petitioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to lower the exposure limit for beryllium from its current threshold of 2 micrograms per cubic meter of air to .2 μg/m3.
Now, 13 years later, OSHA will likely to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to modernize the weak beryllium standard, Keith Wrightson, worker safety and health advocate at Public Citizen, said.
On Dec. 6, 2013, the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health heard testimony from OSHA officials and the public on possible changes to the current beryllium standard for general industry and construction.
Last month, OSHA presented options for the committee to consider for updating the beryllium standard. One of those options includes lowering the personal exposure limit, as Public Citizen has long recommended, and an identical short-term exposure limit. It also includes better exposure monitoring, broader regulated areas, enhanced medical surveillance, and clearer methods of compliance with the standard.
High dust concentrations on construction sites can lead to extremely elevated beryllium levels. OSHA said that 70 percent of all worksites where abrasive blasting is performed – such as construction sites and ship-building yards – have detectable beryllium levels.
While some workers who engage in open-air blasting are protected from high dust levels through air respirators and protective clothing supplied by employers, many are still being exposed to the harmful effects of beryllium because employers don’t provide protection, Wrightson said.
After so many years of foot-dragging by OSHA, he said it’s time that the tens of thousands of workers exposed to beryllium on a daily basis get the protections they deserve.
In written comments to the committee’s hearing Thursday, Wrightson urged the committee to recommend the strongest protections possible within a new beryllium standard.
Beryllium can cause lung cancer, an often fatal lung condition called chronic beryllium disease, and immune system sensitization to beryllium, he said.
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