Meanwhile, the agency whose primary charge is to protect U.S. OSHA’s inaction on this issue has been rendered still more ludicrous by the DOE’s regulations, which took effect in January 2000 and required DOE and its contractors to establish programs to reduce beryllium exposure to 0.2 ug/m 3 (the standard we are seeking in this petition), ten times lower than OSHA’s current PEL. Nonetheless, the agency has made only vague claims of proposed regulatory action and concrete actions are nowhere in sight. Jeffress, reiterated that, “… our current permissible exposure limits for beryllium in the workplace now appear to be too high to prevent chronic beryllium disease.” The agency has even acknowledged that, under the current 2.0 ug/m3 OSHA standard, 2-10% of exposed workers have developed CBD. OSHA’s intention is to proceed with a full rulemaking on this substance which will, in part, presumably lower the PEL … because we now believe that our 2 ug/m3 PEL does not adequately protect beryllium-exposed workers from developing chronic beryllium disease, and there are adequate exposure and health effects data to support this rulemaking. In a 1998 letter to the Department of Energy (DOE), Assistant Secretary Jeffress even went so far as to criticize DOE for not lowering the PEL from the OSHA level of 2.0 ug/m 3 (DOE opted instead to retain the PEL, but requires exposures to be reduced to an “action level” of 0.2 ug/m 3 ), claiming that, In April 1998, OSHA added beryllium to its Unified Regulatory Agenda, a list of planned regulatory actions, and has repeated its commitment to do so semi-annually since. Twenty-four years ago, OSHA formally proposed lowering the beryllium PEL, yet this led to no final action. In the event that an ETS is not granted, we request that you immediately initiate the usual rulemaking process as described in 29 USC 655(f). The LPT should be available to all workers in plants that process beryllium so that those with positive LPTs, and hence at risk for CBD, can be reassigned. , We are also petitioning for annual blood lymphocyte proliferation testing (LPT), a measure of immune sensitization to beryllium. This test is often positive in beryllium-exposed workers before symptoms of actual lung disease develop. This urgent step is necessary because the chemical can cause an often fatal lung condition called chronic beryllium disease (CBD) and immune system sensitization to beryllium at air levels far below the current PEL and after as little as two months of exposure. Section 655(c), to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to lower the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for beryllium and beryllium compounds from the current standard of 2.0 ug/m3 of air to 0.2 ug/m3 as an 8-hour time-weighted average. Public Citizen, a consumer group with 135,000 members and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union (PACE), a union with 302,000 members, hereby petition the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), pursuant to section 6(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S.C. Occupational Safety & Health Administration Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health
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