February 28th, 2006

"OSHA Sets New Rules on Workplace Chromium"

After more than a decade of indecision, The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced yesterday the new limits on workplace exposures to the deadly metal, hexavalent chromium, causing much controversy among consumer activists and the chromium industry.

The new rule sets the acceptable chromium limit to five-micrograms per cubic meter of air, a large decrease from the 1971 standard of 52 micrograms per cubic meter of air. However, the limit is five times higher than the one initially proposed by OSHA in 2004 and 20 times as high as the standard activists were after in a lawsuit filed to force OSHA to issue a new limit.

The agency said their original proposal of one –microgram could not be met due to technical challenges to obtain lower exposures and the effects of the chromium industry''s bottom line.

Approximately 558,000 employees in the steel welding, chrome plating, and paint production industries are exposed to airborne hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen linked to lung cancer deaths. The new OSHA standard will prevent as many as 145 lung cancer-related deaths among the 67,000 workers annually.

Jonathan Snare, acting assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, said the new restriction “substantially reduces the significant health risks” for workers exposed to the metal. He also said the five-microgram “permissible exposure level,” or PEL, “is the lowest level that is feasible both technologically and economically.”

However, the five-microgram limit will still allow for 10 to 45 more cancer deaths for every 1,000 employees exposed compared to less than 10 additional deaths under a one-microgram standard.

“This represents clearly significant additional risks to workers,” said Peter Lurie, deputy director of consumer advocacy group, Public Citizen. “This agency had to be sued in order to issue anything. Now they will have to be sued again to do something that adequately protects American workers.”

Because of the technology setbacks and reported $282 million a year it would take for the chromium industries to comply with the new requirements, they are also considering suing OSHA for their strict standard.

“This is going to cause significant upheaval within our industry,” said Kate McMahon-Lohrer, an attorney for Chromium Coalition. “This will cause a significant number of factory closures or outsourcing to foreign soil, and it will have a very real impact on import penetration in this country''s steel market,”

Despite last week''s allegations that the chromium industry was withholding important information from OSHA, the revealed reports did not give additional information that would''ve altered the agency''s risk assessment. OSHA believes their decision provides a fair balance to both the industries and employees.

Mike Wright, director of health, safety, and environment for the United Steelworkers, believed OSHA was overruled by politics and business surrounding the chromium industry. “The consequence of OSHA''s decision will be that workers will die,” Wright said.