Delays in Recent OSHA Safety and Health Standards Impact on Workers' Lives

Hazard/Issue

Year Rulemaking Initiated

Year Rulemaking Completed

Years Elapsed Since Rulemaking Initiated

Lives Lost Per Year of Delay

Lives Lost Over Entire Rulemaking Period

Cranes and Derricks 1 Hexavalent Chromium2 Silica3

2002 1993 1997

2010 2006 Not yet completed

8 13 14+

22 40 to 145 60

176 520 to 1,885 840

In 2002, OSHA initiated negotiated rulemaking on the cranes and derricks standard. The negotiated rulemaking committee recommended a draft rule in 2004. The proposed rule was issued in 2008 and the final rule promulgated in 2010. According to OSHA, the cranes and derricks standard also will prevent 175 injuries per year. Fatalities and injuries prevented per year by the new standard were obtained from OSHA's preamble to the final rule for cranes and derricks published in the Federal Register on Aug. 9, 2010.
2

In 1993, a petition for an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for the carcinogen hexavalent chromium was submitted to OSHA. In 1994, OSHA denied the ETS petition but put hexavalent chromium on the regulatory agenda for normal rulemaking. OSHA failed to issue a proposed rule. Lawsuits in 1997 and in 2002 seeking to compel rulemaking resulted in a court ordered timetable to issue a final standard by Jan. 18, 2006. According to OSHA, the standard also will prevent 209 to 1,045 cases of dermatitis and 1,140 cases of nasal perforations/ulcerations from occurring annually. Lung cancer and silicosis deaths and illnesses avoided per year by the new standard were obtained from OSHA's preamble to the final rule published in the Federal Register on Feb. 28, 2006.
3

In 1997, silica was put on OSHA's regulatory agenda. In 2003, a draft silica standard underwent a Small Business Regulatory Fairness Enforcement Act (SBREFA) review, but the rule then stalled. Work on the standard was reactivated in 2009, and on Feb. 14, 2011 the draft proposed standard was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under Executive Order 12866. OMB review of proposed rules is required to be completed within 120 days under the EO, but due to political pressure from industries opposed to the new rule, as of April 2012, the draft proposed silica standard remained under review at OMB. Fatalities from lung cancer and silicosis prevented per year by adopting a new PEL at 50 ug/m 3 were obtained from the preliminary initial regulatory flexibility analysis of the draft proposed standard OSHA prepared for the SBREFA review. An estimated 3,600 to 7,300 new cases of silicosis occur per year in the United States, according to Rosenman et al. Am. J. Indus. Med. 44:141147 (2003).