ASSE Seeks Voice for Its Members in Silica Rulemaking

In a Sept. 22 letter to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), ASSE urged OIRA Administrator Cass Sunstein to do everything possible to advance OSHA's rulemaking on occupational exposure to crystalline silica so that ASSE members can play a meaningful part in seeing that the agency promulgates an appropriate standard. ASSE has no position on the rulemaking at this time, but the Society is concerned that OIRA is engaged in a conversation about the rulemaking with only select stakeholders, as the OIRA meeting record indicates. According to ASSE, its members already know how to protect workers from silica risks far above the current standard without being overly burdensome to employers, yet they aren't currently being given the opportunity to tell OSHA how a standard can do the same. Read ASSE's letter here and the OIRA meeting record here.