Understanding the OSHA Beryllium Standard

What It—and Its Timing—Means for You

On January 9, 2017, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced its final ruling on a new beryllium standard. Many in industry were anticipating an update to the 40-year-old standard, but that didn’t prevent the announcement from making waves across the manufacturing sector.

Another wave of news broke when the White House issued a memorandum that shifted the timing of the new rule. On January 20, the memo with the subject line, “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” directed government agencies to review any new or pending regulations. The two important takeaways for beryllium are these: (1) OSHA says that the effective date of the ruling has been moved to May 20, 2017, and (2) “the proposed extension of the effective date will NOT AFFECT the compliance dates of the beryllium rule.” (Emphasis ours!)

OSHA extended the comment period for a few weeks, but the agency has given no indication that the new rule will be cancelled. And, since the compliance dates will remain the same, it behooves manufacturers to begin assessing their air quality and adapting, if needed. The new rule for beryllium is serious business—a tenfold reduction in the permissible exposure limit (PEL). While you catch your breath on this one, let’s run through a quick summary of the situation.

Beryllium—its uses and its dangers

Beryllium is a fairly rare element that is stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum. These qualities and others—a high melting point, transparency to X-rays and so on—make it useful in many advanced products. Most often beryllium is used in an alloy, rather than on its own. Components containing beryllium find their way into airplanes, electronics, nuclear weapons and many other modern technologies.

Unfortunately, human contact with beryllium—whether through touch or inhalation—is a health risk for workers. Exposed workers can become sensitized to beryllium, and if this happens those workers are at risk for serious health effects. Chronic beryllium disease (CBD) is the leading danger of excessive exposure, and incidences of it have been well documented by scientists. Other health problems resulting from exposure, including lung cancer, have been documented as well.

The new standard and its implementation

Around 62,000 workers are potentially exposed to beryllium in the workplace, according to OSHA. The new standard lowers the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for these workers from 2.0 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 0.2 micrograms, or 0.0002 milligrams per cubic meter. Employers have one year from the announcement date to implement most of the provisions of the new regulation.

In addition to the new PEL, employers will also have to evaluate their workers’ exposure to beryllium and to provide workers with training on how to work with the element. Medical exams must also be offered to exposed workers, along with accommodations for any worker suffering from exposure.

OSHA offers many resources to help employers meet the new standard. For example, the agency’s On-site Consultation Program provides free health and safety services to small and medium-sized businesses. Consultations are confidential and can never result in penalties or citations. (To contact this office, call 1-800-321-OSHA (6742) or visit www.osha.gov/consultation.)

The importance of compliance

Failure to comply with OSHA regulations can lead to serious fines, sometimes running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Citations can cause further legal problems as well, worsening lawsuits and inviting further claims. Also, if a company gets a reputation for noncompliance, it can make recruitment and retention efforts more difficult.

However, by far the best reason to comply with OSHA regulations is to protect workers’ health. The new standard was a product of extensive data collection and analysis that concluded the previous exposure limit was not adequately protecting workers. Exposure to beryllium can cause serious health problems, including death, so controlling workers’ exposure is a great responsibility. An added benefit to protecting workers is that healthy workers are proven to be more productive.

How to comply with the new beryllium standard

Compliance with this more rigorous standard will take a new effort from most employers. After evaluating the current air quality—using a certified, third-party service is a good idea—an employer will need to determine what kind of air quality solution is needed to bring its facility into compliance.

Source capture solutions will likely be the first answer for facilities that handle beryllium. Capturing contaminants at the source is the most effective way to protect workers and guarantee the substances don’t propagate throughout a facility. Devices like a fume arm or hood, coupled with a powerful dust collector, can be configured to fit any operation.

Again, the rollout of this new rule was affected by the new administration, but OSHA has said the compliance dates for the rule will stay the same. Rule changes from OSHA take a long time to develop, and presumably the new rule has already gone through extensive analysis and reviews. Barring any huge surprises, manufacturers should start thinking about their beryllium challenges and how to meet them.

Additional Resources

To learn more about different source capture ventilation systems suited for controlling beryllium, contact us today.