Each year occupational safety administrators seek to make changes that effectively keep employees safe while working. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a government agency working to ensure safety by setting and enforcing standards applicable to the United States Department of Labor.

Last year there were more than 2.5 million workplace injuries reported to administrators across the United States. These injuries more-or-less fit into categories involving overexertion, falls, object impacts, and bodily reactions to awkward postures. OSHA constantly makes reforms to their rules as needed in various industries. Their mission includes evolving with current events and addressing potential areas where any safety risks could occur. The changes with the new rules OSHA is proposing for 2023 will seek to better prevent these injuries and many others in the workforce. 

Who is OSHA?

OSHA began regulating workplace safety after the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed in 1970. The origins of the administration arose after massive public outcries against rising injuries and death rates at work. Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to ensure safe and healthful workplace conditions existed for workers in all industries. The administration works to create and enforce specific safety standards by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance. 

Each year the administration receives a budget to effectively provide the resources needed to regulate workplace safety around the country. Originally this budget was utilized to develop the enforcement strategies best fit for businesses, but has gradually evolved into targeting more of those high-hazard industries that have continued ongoing workplace injuries. The current enforcement strategy aids in identifying the specific sites where high injury rates occur, and offers critical resources directly to the highest problem areas within labor departments. One of the most important proponents of OSHA’s enforcement plans is their education and outreach protocols that play vital roles dealing with health and safety. 

OSHA has invested heavily into its websites, educational materials, and resource distribution across the United States. More than 23 million users are present on the OSHA website each year, with more than 300,000 annual downloads of its advisor software systems. The administration has continued to branch out creating various web pages for individual employees, businesses, industry partners, and foraging counterparts in Europe and beyond. 

New Rules for 2023

This year OSHA has made some big changes in reforming many previously existing regulations to better fit the evolving industries in the United States. Here are 5 important changes that you should know about including record keeping, Lockout-Tagout changes, silica exposure, updated HazCom classifications, and shipping requirements. 

1. Recordkeeping Proposed Rule

OSHA published a new rule which would revise electronic injury and illness reporting requirements in US workplaces. Key impacts will include:

• Expanding reporting requirements to ensure companies with more than 100 employees are able to electronically submit all of their OSHA information, whereas previously they were only required to submit a single form’s data. 

• OSHA plans to publish the data collected from the electronic submissions on a public database after removing individual identifiers. Immediately this portion of the proposed ruling has garnered concerns about the likelihood and effectiveness of completely removing personal information from the data prior to being released to the public. 

• The new ruling will also provide exclusions for establishments with 250 or more employees from having to electronically submit their Form 300A information annually to OSHA. 

2. Lockout-Tagout (LOCO) Updates

LOCO is OSHA’s control of hazardous energy standards, initially established in 1989. This regulation has largely remained unchanged since its establishment although OSHA is finally modernizing it to match industry standards utilizing computer based safety softwares. 

• Most hazard controls in national industries recognize and incorporate many different computer based safety softwares. 

• A request for information (RFI) assessed the strengths and limitations of such software when controlling hazardous energy. 

• The RFI determined the current regulations in LOTO, which specifies control current devices are unsuitable for energy isolating devices, must be changed in response to recent technological advancements. Modern technologies may have improved the safety and control of such circuit type devices, and OSHA has responded by preparing to update the LOTO standard and compliance implications for employers. 

3. Silica Exposure Considerations

Silica dust particles are incredibly small and can become trapped in the lung tissue of a person who is exposed, leading to inflammation and scarring that can affect their respiratory tracts. The minute particles can reduce the lung’s capacity to take in oxygen causing a condition classified as silicosis. Silicosis can result in permanent lung damage as it is a progressive, debilitating, and sometimes fatal disease. 

OSHA developed two standards for respiratory silica, one for general industries like construction and one for maritime. Those 2016 standards established exposure action levels reducing the acceptable amount of total daily exposure, installing exposure control measures, and implementing medical surveillance programs to monitor employee health. The established regulations also required businesses and recordkeepers to maintain written documentation of the ongoing exposure control plans and maintain the OSHA standards. 

Other chemical exposure regulations like those that deal with lead, cadmium, and formaldehyde also yield an additional medical removal provision that the former silica regulations lacked. The medical provision required employers to monitor certain airborne exposure indicators or those found in blood concentrations, removing the employee from the contact area once exposure levels are reached. The United States Court of Appeals concluded that OSHA failed to explain its decision to remove the medical provisions from the 2016 silica regulations and remanded the rule for additional consideration of the implications. 

• OSHA is planning to revisit the silica rules and to implement a medical provision installing surveillance programs and removal procedures. 

• Employers that are subjected to the silica rules must ensure they have effective workplace inspection and hygiene standards, efficient incident management strategies, and the ability to promptly record medical removal cases. 

4. Regulatory Activities in Regards to Heat Exposure

The United States Department of Labor reported that hazardous heat exposure resulted in an average of 35 fatalities and 2,700 annual cases in industries across the nation. These injuries also resulted in multiple days away from work during the length of injury. 

• Heat exposure injuries may be incorrectly diagnosed or underreported due to failures when documenting at what point the heat exposure caused or contributed to the official cause of death and injury. This is especially true when the victim ultimately succumbs to some other life threatening condition such as a heart attack or stroke, which may have direct correlations with the onset of heat exposure injuries. 

• OSHA will initiate work on a heat exposure index standard. 

• New emphasis on indoor and outdoor heat related hazards.

5. HazCom Proposed Rule

Proposed updates to existing HazCom standards to align with the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Chemical Labeling. 

• Classifications for flammable gasses, aerosols, and desensitized explosives.

• Additional requirements for various sized shipping containers. 

• Specific requirements for bulk shipments. 

• Required classifications of hazards under normal use including those that result in chemical reactions and other physical changes. 

More Plans For OSHA

As OSHA continues to evolve to better fit modern industries there are likely to be many more reforms down the road. The administration will continue to focus on reducing injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in all traditional industries while also looking ahead toward future challenges. Future safety violations may surround new chemicals or other workplace hazards in the growing service sector industries. OSHA regulations must also adapt to many more hybrid workplaces utilizing virtual assistance and AI technologies to either replace or assist the bulk of their employees.