Page 12 - Occupational Health & Safety, February 2017

INDUSTRY UPDATE
portance of timely breach reporting with the desire not to disincentive breach re- porting altogether,” the agency’s announce- ment stated. It said the office received a breach notification report from Presence Health on Jan. 31, 2014. It indicated that, on Oct. 22, 2013, Presence discovered that paper-based operating room schedules that contained the PHI of 836 individuals were missing from the Presence Surgery Center at the Presence St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Ill., and that the data included af- fected individuals’ names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, dates of proce- dures, types of procedures, surgeon names, and types of anesthesia.
OCR’s investigation revealed that Presence Health failed to notify, without unreasonable delay and within 60 days of discovering the breach, each of the 836 individuals affected by the breach, prominent media outlets (as required for breaches affecting 500 or more individu- als), and OCR.
OCR’s guidance on breach notifica- tion may be found at http://www.hhs.gov/
hipaa/for-professionals/breach-notifica- tion/index.html.
OSHA Issues Beryllium Final Rule
An OSHA final rule issued Jan. 6 aims to reduce an estimated 62,000 workers’ ex- posure to beryllium—exposures that can cause lung diseases. It was scheduled to take effect in 60 days, setting new beryllium standards for general industry, construc- tion, and shipyards.
Beryllium is a strong, lightweight metal used in aerospace, electronics, energy, tele- communication, medical care, and defense; it is toxic when beryllium-containing ma- terials are processed in way that releases airborne beryllium dust, fume, or mist, ac- cording to DOL, which said recent scien- tific evidence shows low-level exposures to beryllium can cause serious lung disease.
“Outdated exposure limits do not ad- equately protect workers from beryllium exposure,” said then-Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels. “OSHA’s new standard is based on a strong foundation of science and consensus on the need for action, in- cluding peer-reviewed scientific evidence, a model standard developed by industry and labor, current consensus standards, and ex- tensive public outreach. The new limits will reduce exposures and protect the lives and lungs of thousands of beryllium-exposed workers.”
The rule will cut the eight-hour PEL from the current level of 2.0 micrograms per cubic meter to 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter. Above 0.2, employers would have to take steps to reduce the airborne concentration of beryllium, and the rule requires additional protections that include personal protective equipment, medical exams, other medical surveillance, and training. It sets a short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 2.0 micrograms per cubic meter over a 15-minute sampling period. The rule provides staggered compliance dates, in- cluding allowing employers a year after the effective date to implement most of its pro- visions. Employers would be required to implement engineering controls beginning three years from the effective date.
OSHA Agrees to Start Work on Health Care Violence Standard OSHA’s representatives agreed during a Jan. 10, 2017, public meeting to move forward on a rulemaking to establish a standard
intended to increase health workers’ pro- tection against violence on the job. OSHA published a Request for Information (RFI) on Dec. 7, 2016, and held the meeting in Washington, D.C.
Two AFL-CIO representatives were scheduled to take part in the meeting—Re- becca Reindel, a senior safety & health spe- cialist, and Peg Seminario, the AFL-CIO’s director of Safety and Health, whose term as a labor representative on OSHA’s Nation- al Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety & Health was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2016. The AFL-CIO was one of the labor organizations that petitioned then- Labor Secretary Tom Perez in July 2016 seeking an OSHA standard. The Teamsters, Steelworkers, and SEIU all joined in the pe- tition, which claimed the health care indus- try violence problem already recognized by OSHA “has grown progressively worse.”
OSHA’s RFI asked for information on effective strategies for reducing incidents of violence in health care and social assistance settings, and the agency set a deadline for comments and materials of April 6, 2017.
National Training Standards for New Bus, Truck Drivers Now in Effect
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin- istration’s final rule establishing national minimum training standards for entry- level commercial truck and bus operators seeking to obtain a commercial driver’s li- cense or certain endorsements was sched- uled to take effect Feb. 6, 2017, with a com- pliance date of February 2020, the agency announced.
The standards established in the rule address the knowledge and skills necessary for the safe operation of commercial motor vehicles and also establish minimum quali- fications for entities and individuals that provide entry-level driver training. Many consensus recommendations of a negoti- ated rulemaking committee are in the rule.
When the rule is fully in effect, ap- plicants seeking a CDL will be required to demonstrate proficiency in knowledge training and behind-the-wheel training on a driving range and on a public road, with training obtained from an instructional program that meets FMCSA standards. There is no required minimum number of hours for the knowledge or behind-the- wheel portions of any of the individual training curricula, but training providers
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