Question: What resources are available to help small businesses and other employers comply with the standards?

Answer:

OSHA recognizes that most employers want to keep their employees safe and protect them from workplace hazards. We therefore provide extensive compliance assistance through our Compliance Assistance Specialists, website, publications, webinars, and training programs, many of which are geared toward small and mid-sized employers.

OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program offers free and confidential occupational safety and health services to small and medium-sized businesses in all states and several territories, with priority given to high-hazard worksites. On-Site Consultation services are separate from enforcement and do not result in penalties or citations. Consultants from state agencies or universities work with employers to identify workplace hazards, provide advice on compliance with OSHA standards, and assist in establishing and improving safety and health programs. To locate the OSHA On-Site Consultation Program nearest you, call 1-800-321-OSHA (6742) or visit www.osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness/index.html. In FY 2017, the On-Site Consultation Program conducted more than 25,987 free visits to small and medium-sized business worksites, helping to remove more than 2.9 million workers from hazards nationwide.

Question: Will states with OSHA-approved programs adopt the standards?

Answer:

Yes. States with OSHA-approved State Plans have six months to adopt standards that are at least as effective as Federal OSHA standards. Many State Plans adopt standards identical to OSHA, but some State Plans may have different or more stringent requirements.

Question: When does the final rule become effective?

Answer:

The effective date was January 17, 2017, which was 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. OSHA also provided delayed or phased-in compliance dates for several requirements in the final rule, including:

• Training workers on fall and equipment hazards — May 17, 2017;
• Inspection and certification of permanent building anchorages — November 20, 2017;
• Installation of fall protection (personal fall arrest systems, ladder safety systems, cages, wells) on existing fixed ladders (over 24 feet) that do not have any fall protection — November 19, 2018;
• Installation of ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems on new fixed ladders (over 24 feet) and replacement ladders/ladder sections — November 19, 2018; and
• Installation of ladder safety systems or personal fall arrest systems on all fixed ladders (over 24 feet) — November 18, 2036.

Question: What are the major changes in the final rule?

Answer:

A number of revisions were made to the existing general industry standards. Changes and new requirements include:

• Fall protection flexibility (§1910.28(b)). The final rule allows employers to protect workers from falls by choosing from a range of accepted fall protection systems, including personal fall protection systems. It eliminates the existing mandate to use guardrails as the primary fall protection method and gives employers the flexibility to determine what method they believe is more effective in their particular workplace situation. This approach has been successful in the construction industry since 1994. The rule allows employers to use non-conventional fall protection practices in certain situations, such as designated areas on low-slope roofs for work that is temporary and infrequent and fall protection plans on residential roofs when employers can demonstrate guardrail, safety net, or personal fall protection systems are not feasible or create a greater hazard (§1910.28(b)(1) and (b)(13));
• Updated scaffold requirements (§1910.27(a)). The final rule replaces the outdated general industry scaffold standards with the requirement that employers comply with OSHA's construction scaffold standards;
• Phase-in of ladder safety systems or personal fall arrest systems on fixed ladders (§1910.28(b)(9)). The final rule phases in - over a 20-year period - a requirement to equip fixed ladders (that extend over 24 feet) with ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems, and prohibits the use of cages and wells as a means of fall protection after the phase-in deadline. There is wide recognition that cages and wells do not prevent workers from falling from fixed ladders or protect them from injury if a fall occurs. The final rule grandfathers in cages and wells on existing ladders, but requires that employers equip new ladders and replacement ladders/ladder sections with ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems during the phase-in period;
• Phase-out of the “qualified climber” exception in outdoor advertising (§1910.28(b)(10)). The final rule phases out OSHA's directive allowing qualified climbers in outdoor advertising to climb fixed ladders on billboards without fall protection and phases in the requirement to equip fixed ladders (over 24 feet) with ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems. Outdoor advertising employers must follow the fall protection phase-in timeline for fixed ladders. However, if ladders do not have any fall protection, outdoor advertising employers have two years to comply with the existing standard (i.e., install a cage or well) or, instead, may install a ladder safety or personal fall arrest system, both of which are less costly than cages or wells;
• Rope descent systems (RDS) and certification of anchorages (§1910.27(b)). The final rule codifies OSHA's memorandum for employers who use RDS to perform elevated work. It prohibits employers from using RDS at heights greater than 300 feet above grade unless they demonstrate it is not feasible or creates a greater hazard to use any other system above that height. In addition, the final rule requires building owners to provide, and employers to obtain, information that permanent anchorages used with RDS have been inspected, tested, certified, and maintained as capable of supporting at least 5,000 pounds per employee attached.
• Personal fall protection system performance and use requirements (§1910.140). The final rule, which allows employers to use personal fall protection systems (i.e., personal fall arrest, travel restraint, and positioning systems), adds requirements on the performance, inspection, use, and maintenance of these systems. Like OSHA's construction standards, the final rule prohibits the use of body belts as part of a personal fall arrest system;
• Inspection of walking-working surfaces (§1910.22(d)). The final rule requires that employers inspect walking-working surfaces regularly as needed and correct, repair, or guard against hazardous conditions; and
• Training (§1910.30). The final rule adds requirements that employers ensure workers who use personal fall protection and work in other specified high hazard situations are trained, and retrained as necessary, regarding fall and equipment hazards and fall protection systems. Employers must provide information and training to each worker in a manner the worker understands.

Question: Who and what does the final rule cover?

Answer:

The rule applies to all general industry workplaces and covers all walking-working surfaces, which include horizontal and vertical surfaces such as floors, stairs, roofs, ladders, ramps, scaffolds, elevated walkways, and use of fall protection systems.

The final rule covers a wide variety of general industry firms including building management services, utilities, warehousing, retail, window cleaning, chimney sweeping, and outdoor advertising.

Question: What benefits does the final rule provide for employers?

Answer:

The rule is easier for employers to follow and provides employers with greater flexibility. For example, it:

• Provides compliance flexibility for employers by increasing the fall protection options employers may use;
• Provides greater consistency between OSHA's general industry and construction standards, which makes compliance simpler for employers who perform both general industry and construction activities;
• Incorporates advances in technology, industry best practices, and national consensus standards, which provide employers with effective and cost-efficient measures to protect workers;
• Replaces outdated specification requirements with more flexible performance-based language and criteria, and makes the rule clearer for employers and workers to understand and follow.

Question: How does the final rule increase worker protection?

Answer:

The final rule increases worker protection in many ways. The rule:

• Eliminates the hazard of workers climbing extended heights on fixed ladders without fall protection by phasing out the use of qualified climbers in outdoor advertising;
• Phases in a requirement that fixed ladders (over 24 feet) must be equipped with ladder safety or personal fall protection systems to prevent workers from falling or arresting their fall before contact with a lower level;
• Provides performance criteria for personal fall protection equipment in general industry, similar to the criteria used in OSHA's construction industry rules since 1994;
• Requires the use of body harnesses, and prohibits body belts, in personal fall arrest systems to distribute fall arrest forces over a larger area of a worker's body; and
• Requires that workers who use personal fall protection and other covered equipment be trained, and retrained as necessary, in fall and equipment hazards prior to work at elevated heights and use of that equipment, including fall protection systems.

Question: What is the purpose of the final rule?

Answer:

The final rule updates and revises the outdated general industry Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Protective Equipment (Fall Protection Systems) standards on slip, trip, and fall hazards, which are a leading cause of worker deaths and lost-workday injuries (29 CFR part 1910, subparts D and I). OSHA adopted the existing standards in 1971 and had not updated them since. The final rule also adds new requirements on personal fall protection systems (29 CFR part 1910, subpart I).

OSHA estimates the final rule will prevent 29 worker deaths and 5,842 lost-workday injuries each year. Additionally, because the final rule harmonizes general industry requirements with OSHA's existing construction industry standard and many ANSI standards, the new rule will make compliance obligations clearer and less costly. OSHA estimates the annual monetized benefits of the lives saved and injuries prevented will be $614.5 million (with net benefits of $309.5 million (benefits minus costs)).

Question: Beryllium is present in trace amounts in rock and soil and in some common building materials such as concrete and brick. Are the requirements of the beryllium standard in construction—such as the requirement to assess and monitor exposures—triggered by ha

Answer:

Except as discussed below, when performing tasks at the typical construction site, exposure to common building materials containing trace amounts of beryllium will normally not trigger the requirements of the beryllium standard. The beryllium standard applies to occupational exposure to beryllium in all forms, compounds, and mixtures in the construction industry. However, the rule exempts from coverage materials containing less than 0.1 percent beryllium by weight where the employer has objective data demonstrating that employee exposure to beryllium will remain below the action level of 0.1 µg/m³, as an 8-hour time weighted average, under any foreseeable conditions. When these circumstances are met, none of the requirements of the standard apply.

OSHA’s analysis of its own sampling data demonstrates that exposures from construction operations involving rock, soil, and concrete are highly unlikely to exceed the action level in typical circumstances. Given the low levels of beryllium in rock, soil, and concrete, airborne dust concentrations would have to be extremely high for exposures to even approach the beryllium action level.^[1] The same is true for brick, which may contain beryllium in trace amounts comparable to these materials.^[2] Dust concentrations from rock, soil, concrete, or brick would typically exceed the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for total airborne dust (15 mg/m³), or particulates not otherwise classified (PNOC), long before the beryllium action level is reached. In the case of concrete, the level of airborne dust required to reach the beryllium action level would also surpass the PEL for respirable crystalline silica (50 µg/m³) many times over. Thus, the action level for beryllium would only be reached under extremely dusty conditions that would also exceed the PELs for PNOC and respirable crystalline silica.

OSHA considers this data sufficient to demonstrate that exposure to rock, soil, concrete, and brick at the typical construction site will not result in beryllium exposure above the action level under foreseeable conditions. Outside of the materials listed above and certain abrasive blasting media (see FAQ: Who is at risk from exposure to beryllium?), OSHA is not aware of any other building materials at the typical construction site that contain beryllium. However, for any material containing comparable levels of beryllium, an employer may rely on objective data that exposures in its operations are consistently below the PEL for PNOC to demonstrate that exposure from these materials would not exceed the beryllium action level under foreseeable conditions.

However, if an employer has reason to believe that the materials at its particular worksite contain beryllium at levels significantly above average—for example, the employer is performing construction tasks at a beryllium manufacturing facility—or that a particular process produces abnormally high levels of dust such that beryllium exposure might foreseeably reach the action level (as with abrasive blasting), that employer would be required to comply with the applicable provisions of the beryllium standard. In determining whether either of these scenarios applies, a construction employer may rely on objective data provided by an individual qualified by knowledge or experience to assess beryllium exposures at the employer’s worksite.