Beige Book reports strong commercial construction activity
The Federal Reserve Board July 25 reported in its new Beige Book that commercial construction activity remained strong in most of the 12 Federal Reserve districts (which represent 12 geographic regions across the nation) since the release of the last Beige Book in June.

The report noted that residential construction and real estate activity continued to decline in most districts, with the Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis and Minneapolis districts reporting a specific decrease in construction.

“This report is a welcome sign that the nonresidential construction sector is going strong,” said Jeff Taylor, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) chief economist. “While the housing market remains mired with weakness, nonresidential construction activity remains very robust. In the past year, all the major segments of the nonresidential construction sector have posted double-digit rates of growth. Combined with several reports of increased capital spending in this Beige Book, the outlook for nonresidential is very positive.”

The Beige Book also reported that certain districts experienced high prices for materials, most notably copper and petroleum-based products.

For more information, visit the Federal Reserve Board.

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ISEA challenges OSHA standards proposal; offers alternative to protect workers
The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) has challenged a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed rule to regulate the use of safety eyewear and hard hats, and offered an alternative approach that ISEA says would maintain worker protection.

In comments submitted July 16, ISEA said the agency’s May 17, 2007, proposal to change the way it recognizes product performance standards for personal protective equipment (PPE) could potentially reduce the level of protection for workers and make compliance with the rule more difficult for employers.

Current OSHA regulations require that eye and head protection devices meet product performance standards issued under the banner of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI standards are voluntary, but they are widely accepted in the United States and recognized by OSHA and numerous other regulatory agencies.

OSHA adopts specific product performance standards, and the standards may go through several revisions before OSHA is able to update its rules to incorporate the newer versions. Under the OSHA proposal, however, references to these standards would be replaced with a requirement that PPE meet “good design standards,” an approach that ISEA says offers no assurance of a minimum level of protection.

ISEA’s alternative would maintain the reference to the current version of the standard, and include a method by which OSHA could evaluate standards that offer equivalent protection and allow employers to use products meeting those standards.

This approach “maintains the level of performance of PPE that meets the consensus standard in the current regulation, so that worker protection is not compromised,” according to the ISEA submission. It gives employers the flexibility to select PPE that best meets their workers’ needs, based on hazard assessment. And it gives OSHA the flexibility to update references to consensus standards when they are revised, and add new product standards as they are issued without a lengthy and laborious regulatory process.

“We fully appreciate what OSHA is trying to do in this rulemaking,” said ISEA President Dan Shipp. “They aren’t able to keep up with revisions to the product standards they reference in their regulations, and they’re searching for a way to keep the rules current without having to go through a full rulemaking every few years for each standard.

But to take those references out of the regulation, and replace them with the requirement that PPE comply with some vaguely defined good design standard shows a lack of understanding of the role of performance standards and their use in regulation.”

In its comments, ISEA points out that there are hundreds of PPE product standards around the world that might qualify as good design standards, but that they are not equivalent to the ANSI standards that have been part of the regulation. Without the reference to a specific standard in the regulatory text, OSHA would provide no baseline performance requirements for PPE, ISEA said.

“If the rule is published the way OSHA is proposing it, the ANSI standards would still be the baseline, and OSHA would include them in an appendix as examples of what makes a good design standard,” Shipp said. “But what happens in the future?”

The proposed requirements for a good design standard are that it incorporate safety, that it is recognized as providing an adequate level of protection, and that the standards-developing organization use an open process that considers the views of a broad constituency.

“There’s nothing in this proposal that says the standards recognized in the future have to be as protective as standards recognized today,” Shipp said. “That’s why we’re trying to convince OSHA not to take the reference to a specific standard out of the regulatory text.”

ISEA asked OSHA to convene an informal public hearing to discuss all the aspects of this proposed rule. For a copy of the ISEA comments, go to www.safetyequipment.org.

ISEA, headquartered in Arlington, Va., is the trade association for personal protective equipment. Its member companies are world leaders in the design and manufacture of PPE used to protect people from hazardous environments in the workplace and at home.

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OSHA conducting weekend inspections on construction jobsites
Regional offices of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) based in Chicago, Kansas City, Mo., and Atlanta have been conducting weekend inspections and safety sweeps at construction jobsites this summer, according to an article in the June 27 edition of the Bureau of National Affairs’ Construction Labor Report, and recently reported on the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Web site.

The inspections are expected to continue through the remainder of the summer. Under the 2007 Teen Summer Job Safety Campaign, OSHA compliance officers have the authority to conduct an inspection during the weekend at any active construction site when they observe a specific hazard occurring on the jobsite, the article stated. Hazards relating to scaffolding, fall protection, training, trenching and dangerous overhead power lines are the most frequently cited, the article said.

In addition, the article reported that weekend inspections and construction safety sweeps have been conducted regionally for the last two to three years, and have yielded slightly more citations per inspection than weekday visits.

According to the article, in 2006, there were 135 inspections and 129 citations issued in Region 5. The regional average was 2.6 citations per inspection during the week and 2.9 citations per inspection on the weekend, the article said.

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Recall for select Milwaukee Ni-CD batteries
Recall safety notice for 18V and 14.4V, 2.4 Ah NiCd Battery Pack manufactured between July 1999 and February 2004 - sold under Milwaukee 'Power-Plus', Chicago Pneumatic and Extractor brands. Click here to learn more.

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