OSHA Delays Enforcement of Certain Portions of Beryllium Standard

OSHA has made some changes to enforcement dates for its beryllium standard.  Some portions are being enforced as of May 11, 2018, some have been moved to December 12, 2018, and for construction and shipyards, some provisions may never be enforced.

These are the parts of the standards which are currently being enforced as of May 11, 2018:

• Permissible Exposure Limits in the general industry, construction, and shipyard standards.
• General industry exposure assessment requirements;
• General industry respiratory protection requirements;
• General industry medical surveillance and medical removal provisions;
• General industry requirements for changing rooms beginning March 11, 2019; and,
• General industry requirements for engineering controls on March 10, 2020.

Moved to December 12, 2018:

• Everything else in the general industry standard not listed above.

As for the remaining requirements from the construction and maritime industries, OSHA says with the exception of the permissible exposure limits, it will not enforce any other provisions until further notice.  [OSHA’s full announcement].

If your company produces products containing beryllium, you need to determine your exposure levels and follow guidelines set forth by the new beryllium standard.  Learn more about what these guidelines are in our previous blog post “Beryllium: What You Need to Know About OSHA’s Newest Exposure Standard”.