MACOSH EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Baltimore, MD
December 6 - 7, 2000

The sixteenth meeting of the OSHA Maritime Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (MACOSH) was called to order at 8:45 a.m. on December 6, 2000 in Baltimore, MD. An electronic transcript of the full meeting was sent separately to you for your review and record. With one minor addition recommended by Charles Thompson, the Executive Summary and the transcript on the July 2000 meeting were approved unanimously. Larry Reed and Larry Liberatore began the meeting and reviewed the agenda for the current meeting.

Larry Liberatore and Susan Sherman led a discussion on the current charter. The charter is to advise the Assistant Secretary for OSHA on all matters relating to safety and health of workers in maritime industries, specifically enforcement, training and outreach and regulatory efforts. Unlike other advisory committees (e.g., NACOSH, and ACCSH) that are statutory in nature, MACOSH is a discretionary committee that serves at the discretion of the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health. The current 2-year charter is to expire in March 2002.

Stew Burkhammer, the chairperson of ACCSH, the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, gave a presentation on how that particular committee works and some of the topics they are currently working on. ACCSH meets four times a year for up to 5 days, which allows ample workgroup time. Among current ACCSH workgroup activities are cranes, diversified workforce, fall protection, hexavalent chromium, and musculoskeletal disorders (i.e., ergonomics). New workgroups include noise, process safety management, and silica in construction.

Tom Galassi, Deputy Director of Compliance, provided an update on enforcement and compliance issues. The topics discussed included the tool bag directive, the data initiative, the national emphasis program for ship scrapping, the multi-employer policy, the Navy lock-out/tag-out program, and employee involvement. Mr. Galassi requested the committee’s input on whether boat manufacturing should be covered under 1915 or 1910 and for the committee to provide scenarios of multi-employer for the appendices of the multi-employer work-site policy.

Steve Butler, Division Chief of Division of Maritime Compliance, provided an update on maritime compliance issues. The topics discussed included the powered industrial truck application, the ergonomic study in longshoring, the vertical tandem lift issue, the 1919 Cargo Gear Accreditation/Certification program, the work being done with SHAC on developing a video on fatalities within the shipyard industry, and the review of the eCat.

Chap Pierce, Acting Director of Maritime Standards, provided an update on current OSHA standards. Mr. Pierce explained that with the publishing of the Ergonomics standard, that the 10 OSHA standards teams were now back to their individual working schedules.

The standards discussed included

  • The Safety and Health Program Standard
  • The Recordkeeping Standard, which was close to being sent to the Office of Management and Budget and would be effective January 1, 2002
  • The PPE Payment rule will soon be completed as a final rule
  • The Fire Protection Negotiated Rulemaking committee is planning a meeting for Feb. 2001
  • The Longshoring Guidebook is at the printers
  • The revised Silica proposal is still due in 2001

Tom Pope provided an update on training issues that are currently being worked on. The shipyard training course at Kings Point is scheduled for two times in 2001 and the OSHA Training Institute maritime training course, which includes instruction on the shipyard and longshoring OSHA standards is scheduled for June of 2001. A longshoring training course to be held at Kings Point, similar to the shipyard course, is currently being developed. Mr. Pope discussed the eCat, electronic compliance assistance tool, that is currently being developed. There are several portions completed, and this is available for compliance officers and for employers for training purposes.

Deborah Gabry from OSHA Office of Technical Support provided an update on some outreach activities. With the assistance of MARITECH, a hazard matrix was developed that would involve taking the most prevalent injuries in the industry, identifying them and then developing prevention or abatement techniques. The remainder of the first day was spent in break out sessions.

On December 7, 2000, Dr. Steve Huddock from NIOSH provided an update on the NIOSH/NSRP Ergonomics Study. Currently, Steve and his study team are in the process of developing and assessing the effectiveness of interventions for the ergonomic problems that have been identified at several shipyards and longshoring facilities. In addition, ergonomics training is being developed. The final phase is to produce separate best ergonomic practice guidelines for shipyard and longshoring industries. Steve has also developed a NIOSH website of ergonomic solutions to date (). The expected completion date for the shipyard portion of the study is September 2002. The longshoring portion of the study is expected to be completed by September 2004.

Jim Maddux, Office of Safety Standards, discussed the OSHA Recordkeeping Standard. This regulation will include the maritime industry and will become effective January 1, 2002. This regulation was sent to OMB, and plans are to have this published in the Federal Register as a final rule in January. Mr. Maddux agreed to give an update on this regulation at a future MACOSH meeting after it has been published.

The remainder of the morning was spent in breakout sessions. Captain John McNeill presented a summary from the longshoring session. Capt. McNeill began with listing the items on the longshoring priorities list (from October 2000) that had been completed, removed, and added.

  • The VTL issue was discussed in detail; Paul Rossi gave a presentation on the ILO meeting held in South Africa, and what was accomplished.
  • A work group was established to develop operational issues for VTL’s
  • A terminal traffic workgroup will be formed to develop a draft notice to outside truckers on terminal safety and driving rules.
  • Other topics discussed included root causes of accidents and the development of an analysis tool, the proposed subjects for the Kings Point Longshoring training course for OSHA compliance officers, a presentation on container pedestal lashing, tri-party agreements, and current jurisdictional problems.

Jim Thornton presented the summary from the Shipyard session. James Sammons from Moon Engineering gave a presentation on a locking device and fire-retardant cloth. The priorities list for the Shipyard group from October 2000 was reviewed and refined.

  • A liaison group was established to work with SHAC and report back to MACOSH. This group includes Larry Reed, Chico McGill and Terry Preston.
  • Larry Reed will head up an inter-advisory group to work with other OSHA Advisory Committees.
  • A workgroup for electrical hazards was established, and will include Chico McGill, Jim Thornton, Steve Morris, Emile Benard, NIOSH, Iona Evans and Joe Daddura. This group will review and make recommendations on Subpart L.
  • A competent person work group consisting of Emile Benard, Steve Morris, Bob Scott and Laura Weems was established to look at the problems associated with Shipyard Competent Person’s (SCP’s).
  • Other topics discussed included diesel exhaust, permissible exposure limits, the NIOSH ergonomics study, multi-employer work sites, blasting and confined spaces, testing protocol for respirator change-out, noise, the top 10 hazards and abatement, focused training, the former SESAC recommendations, and the 1988 OSHA standards proposals (e.g., Subpart N, Scaffolds; Subpart D, Welding, Cutting and Heating; Subpart E, Access and Egress; and Subpart M, Fall Protection), work organization (100% safe), positive measures of safety and health performance, the self evaluating programs, and communication.

The full committee then discussed plans for the next meeting to be held in conjunction with the Applied Ergonomics Conference in Orlando, FL on March 13-14, 2001, or in the San Diego or Washington, DC areas on March 28-29, 2001. The subsequent meeting was tentatively scheduled for July 18-19, 2001 at a location to be determined.