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U.S. Department of Labor | |
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| Occupational Safety & Health Administration | ||||||
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Chapter 5 - The Utilization of Industry Consensus Standards The Utilization of Industry Consensus Standards OSHA uses industry consensus standards, related to the safe operation of equipment, as guidance of the industry accepted practice for safe operations. Industry consensus standards which describe equipment configuration or design but which do not describe safe and/or healthful use and operation of the equipment are of limited assistance to OSHA. In any event, even when an industry consensus standard addresses safety/health considerations, OSHA may determine that the safety/health practices described by that industry consensus standard are deficient when related to the requirement(s) set forth by the pertinent OSHA regulation(s). However, many of the various ANSI safety standards devoted to the safe use of equipment and machines are pertinent and provide valuable guidance as they relate to the multitude of safe operating procedures regularly discussed in ANSI safety standards. All of the requirements of 29 CFR 1910.212, are applicable to machines found in industry. Paragraph (a)(1), requires that employees be protected from the hazards created by the point of operation, ingoing nip points, and rotating parts. Paragraph (a)(2), describes the manner in which guards shall be affixed. The proper application of devices are not described; therefore, other similar OSHA or pertinent industry standards must be referred to for guidance. Paragraph (a)(3) describes, with particularity, the requirements for safeguarding the point of operation. The OSHA standard specifically requires that at the point of operation, "the guarding device shall be in conformity with any appropriate standards therefore, or in the absence of applicable specific standards, shall be so designed and constructed as to prevent the operator from having any part of his body in the danger zone during the operating cycle. "Applicable standards include any similar OSHA standard or any OSHA adopted industry consensus standard(s) which provide for the safety of the operator during the operating cycle. However, any specific industry consensus standard, such as an ANSI standard for the particular machine or equipment, should be used for guidance relative to the accepted procedures for safeguarding workers and operators from the recognized hazards of the equipment. Employers who comply with the requirements of an industry consensus standard rather than a specific OSHA standard, where such compliance deviates from the OSHA requirements but provides for a more conservative safeguarding concept, are categorized as having created a de minimis violation of the specific OSHA standard. (A de minimis violation is a violation of an OSHA standard that has no direct or immediate relationship to safety or health. Such de minimis violations require no correction and result in no penalty.) OSHA encourages employers to abide by the more current industry consensus standards since those standards are more likely to be abreast of the state of the art than an applicable OSHA standard may be. Furthermore, the industry consensus standards will usually discuss a variety of techniques for averting exposure to the identified hazards of the machine or process. Listing of Specific ANSI Safety Standards
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