New Silica Dust Regs to Cost Stone Industry $8.6M Yearly
(Note: Article updated 8/26/2013 with MIA actions.)
Proposed federal regulations on workplace silica dust will lead to $8.6 million in annual compliance costs to the U.S. stone industry.
The new rules, unveiled Friday by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), seek to reduce exposure to crystalline silica – and the possibility of lung disease and cancer – for more than 2.1 million workers in a variety of industries, including stone cutting and product fabrication.
The changes now face a comment period, with a public hearing next March. If adopted, the changes would likely be enforceable in the first part of 2015 at the earliest.
In an intitial response, the Marble Institute of America (MIA) will offer a variety of educational materials — at no charge — and work to educate the industry through a new web portal.
The changes would be the first since 1971 in permissible exposure levels (PELs) for silica dust in U.S. industry. The new PEL for all silica dust would be 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air in an eight-hour (one shift) time-weighted average; current levels are 100 to 250 micrograms, depending on the industry.
OSHA’s accompanying information on the proposed rules includes an industry-specific breakdowns on compliance costs, including the 1,943 establishments cited by the U.S. Census Bureau as “cut stone and stone product manufacturing.”
The OSHA data shows 12,085 stone-industry employees would be affected by the proposed rules, with a total annual compliance cost of $8.6 million. Close to $5.9 million of that yearly cost is included as part of a 10-year amortization of what the federal agency calls “engineering controls,” which includes ventilation systems and wet-fabrication equipment.
The industry would also be paying an annual average of $1.8 million in exposure assessment and $431,758 for respirators. Medical costs, including regular thre-year checkups and chest x-rays of all employees exposed to silica dust, would be $151,392 per year.
On a per-shop basis, OSHA estimates the annual compliance cost at $1,872 (in 2009-valued dollars) for stone-industry businesses with fewer than 20 employees. The two biggest areas would the amortized equipment costs ($1,158) and exposure monitoring ($535). Respirators would be $86 a year, and medical would be $31.
Determining per-shop costs for mid-sized companies, however, is difficult, since OSHA uses the federal Small Business Administration’s definition of 500 employees or fewer as “small” in the stone industry. A study of OSHA data shows 500+ workers at 69 establishments, with an annual compliance cost for each business of $8,287.
The MIA, which began a program on silicosis education several years ago, produced a new information/education webpage on the proposed rules. The portal will include links to MIA training materials on OSHA inspections that the organization is now offering free of charge to the industry.
The proposed rules are based on numerous studies of workers worldwide. The three with direct roots in the stone trade include a study of Vermont granite quarry and shed workers employed from 1950-1982, Finnish granite workers from 1972-1981, Danish stone cutters from 1948-1980, and German stone workers from 1980-1994.
The studies from the first three groups showed higher incidences of lung disease and cancer. The German case-control study showed no correlation between silica-related work and lung disease/cancer, although the mandated German PEL for silica at that time was lower than the current allowable rate in the United States.
The stone-industry size estimates used by OSHA come from federal studies based on the North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 327991 of Cut Stone and Stone Product Manufacturing. While this includes monument companies and some quarries not usually considered as part of the U.S. dimensional-stone trade, the 327991 code is used by OSHA for enforcement of regulations on all dimensional-stone businesses.
OSHA’s webpage on the new silica regulations is here. The official Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, including industry breakdowns of cost is here.
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