OSHA Silica Proposal Misses Industry Cost by $4.5B

WASHINGTON — A report released late last week assets that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA)  proposed silica standards for U.S. construction industry will cost the industry $5 billion per year–roughly $4 .5 billion per year more than the federal agency’s estimates.

The Construction Industry Safety Coalition (CISC) also cautioned that the flawed cost estimates reflect deeper flaws in the rule and urged OSHA to reconsider its approach.

OSHA’s proposed rule, intended to drastically reduce the permissible exposure limit (PEL) of crystalline silica for the construction industry, came with what the agency figured as a $511 million annual cost to employers. The CISC study estimates those cost will actually be approximately 10 times the OSHA estimate.  

The CISC report estimates that about 80% of the cost, or $3.9 billion annually, will be direct compliance expenditures by the industry such as additional equipment, labor and record-keeping costs. The remaining 20% ($1.05 billion) of the cost will come in the form of increased prices that the industry will have to pay for construction materials and building products such as concrete block, glass, roofing shingles and more.

The additional costs to the construction industry that will result from the proposed standard will likely be passed down to customers in the form of higher prices.

The CISC also estimates that the proposed regulation would reduce the number of full-time jobs in the U.S. economy by more than 52,700 yearly. That figure includes construction industry jobs, jobs in related industries such as building-material suppliers, equipment manufacturers and architects, as well as losses in non-construction sectors.

Factoring in the many part-time or seasonal jobs, that number could increase to close to 80,000 positions lost.

“The assumptions that were made by OSHA in developing this rule are completely off-base and we hope this report adequately tells the truth of what this rule will truly mean to the construction industry,” said Jeff Buczkiewicz, president of the Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA). “We believe the current silica rule has done a fantastic job of reducing related illnesses so much so that it is still declining every year and current projections have it being eliminated over time.

“Our industry needs a rule that is based on real-world construction site scenarios that is not technologically and economically infeasible to implement and this report clearly shows that this rule does not fit that bill.”  

“This report clearly demonstrates OSHA’s lack of real world understanding of the construction industry and raises serious questions about their ability to responsibly craft-industry standards,” said Geoff Burr, vice president of government affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). “We hope that this report will lead OSHA to withdraw its proposed rule and work more closely with the construction industry to emphasize compliance with the current standard.”

An easy-to-read infographics summary of the CISC findings is available here. The full CISC report, which was also submitted to OSHA, can be found at www.nahb.org/silicareport.

Additional information on crystalline silica and the stone industry is available at the Marbie Institute of America’s silica site.

Member organizations of the CISC include a large spectrum of the building industry, including the MCAA, MIA, Natural Stone Council, Building Stone Institute, International Council of Employers of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, Leading Builders of America, National Association of Home Builders, National Association of the Remodeling Industry and the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute.

Get the news of the industry with Slab & Sheet, the weekly e-newsletter every Thursday from Stone Update. Sign up for free delivery here.

For the latest industry info, check Stone Update on Twitter and Facebook.