2019-21038: Occupational Exposure to Beryllium and Beryllium Compounds in Construction and Shipyard Sectors

Summary

OSHA is proposing to revise the standards for occupational exposure to beryllium and beryllium compounds in the construction and shipyards industries. These proposed changes are designed to accomplish three goals: To more appropriately tailor the requirements of the construction and shipyards standards to the particular exposures in these industries in light of partial overlap between the beryllium standards' requirements and other OSHA standards; to aid compliance and enforcement across the beryllium standards by avoiding inconsistency, where appropriate, between the shipyards and construction standards and proposed revisions to the general industry standard; and to clarify certain requirements with respect to materials containing only trace amounts of beryllium. This proposal would lead to total annualized cost savings of $2.5 million at a 3 percent discount rate over 10 years; at a discount rate of 7 percent over 10 years, the annualized cost savings would be $2.5 million. OSHA has preliminarily determined that these proposed changes would maintain safety and health protections for workers, while facilitating compliance with the standards and yielding some cost savings. This proposal does not affect the general industry beryllium standard.

The agency’s own summary, as published.

What this changes

Amends 2 parts of the Code of Federal Regulations — the standing rules this notice rewrites.

• 29 CFR 1915 Occupational Safety and Health Standards for Shipyard Employment
• 29 CFR 1926 Safety and Health Regulations for Construction