New OSHA Rules Published or Coming In Next Few Months

The good folks at OSHA have been busy. They’ve got one new rule coming soon and four updated rules coming right after that. Makes me feel lazy in comparison. Let’s see what they’ve been up to.

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The New OSHA Rule:

Confined Spaces in Construction. Check our Confined Spaces in Construction post for more information about this one, which OSHA says they’ll publish in August. This standard has been in the works for a looooong time. It will be interesting to see if this really goes into effect and, if it does, how smooth or bumpy the process is for those in the field. We’d love to hear your thoughts and comments about this!

Upcoming OSHA Rule Updates:

• PPE–This should be ready in September. The big change here is the incorporation of more recent consensus standards.
• Walking/Working Surfaces–Expect this in October. The changes make the standard more current and easier to follow.
• Personal Fall Protection Systems–This should also arrive in October. OSHA says: “A new section would be added to subpart I that provides criteria for fall protection equipment. This new section would make the general industry standards consistent with existing construction and maritime standards regulating fall protection, as well as current industry practice, and give clear standards on fall protection PPE to employers.”
• Injury and Illness Reporting—This one will appear a little later–March of 2015. The big change here is electronic submission of injury and illness data. See our OSHA’s New Injury and Illness Record Submission Requirements post for more about this. We’ll follow-up shortly with a guide that covers this in more detail.

Stay tuned for more information on each of these updated and new OSHA rules. We’ll publish a separate article as each arrives. Plus, we’ll be creating a handy guide to injury/illness reporting that will include a peek at OSHA’s online reporting interface. That should be interesting.