Page 37 - Occupational Health & Safety, October 2019

ica emissions/exposure generated by other employers or self- employed workers. Employers must restrict access when the non-Table 1 activity exposure assessment shows exposure levels are above the PEL or when following a Table 1 activity where respirators are required. OSHA recommends scheduling certain tasks when others are not around, telling employees avoid areas where dust is generated.
The last section of the plan must designate a competent per- son to frequently and regularly inspect job sites, materials, and equipment to implement the written exposure control plan. The employer must ensure this person has the knowledge to identify existing and foreseeable respirable crystalline silica hazards, and the person must have the authorization to promptly eliminate or minimize the hazards.
Once the plan is finalized, the employer must allow employees to view or copy the plan. The standard requires employers to re- view and evaluate the effectiveness of the written exposure control plan at least once a year and update as necessary.
If you are a construction employer attempting to figure out how you are going to protect employees, schedule sampling, assess task, or pay for the sampling of non-table 1 activities, the CEA Ob- jective Data Program could be the easy button to assist you.
The Construction Employers Association “CEA” has partnered with SGS Galson, a certified laboratory, to develop an objective da- tabase. The two main goals of the program are to protect workers in
industry and to assist contractors with compliance. The CEA/SGS’s program provides employers the opportunity to lease equipment or view objective data to assist in the development of the worker exposure plan. The program has been active for the last two years, and the database has hundreds of silica assessments that are avail- able through subscriptions. To ensure confidence of the data sub- mitted into the program, a third party audits the data. The database consists of personal samples and area/perimeter samples to assist in setting up the restricted areas. Currently, CEA’s database has had samples submitted of the following materials: asphalt, block, brick, concrete, cement, grout, mortar, soil, naturally occuring rock, dry- wall and fireproofing. If you are interested in learning more about the program, please visit https://www.ceacisp.org/SilicaProgram.
Kent Crytzer serves as Director of Safety and leads CEA’s Safety Programming as well as the Construction Safety Council of North- east Ohio. He graduated with a degree in Safety and Environmental Management from Slippery Rock University in 2002 and obtained his Certified Safety Professional designation in April of 2009.
REFERENCES
1. https://www.osha.gov/silica/Table1sect1926.1153.pdf
2. https://www.osha.gov/dsg/topics/silicacrystalline/construction_info_silica.html
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