In a series of surprise moves, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it had withdrawn two separate proposed rules that would have had the potential to significantly impact the construction industry.
On January 19, 2011, the agency announced it was withdrawing its proposed interpretation titled “Interpretation of OSHA’s Provisions for Feasible Administrative or Engineering Controls of Occupational Noise.” The interpretation would have sought to clarify the term “feasible administrative or engineering controls” as used in OSHA’s noise standard. The proposed interpretation was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 19, 2010. AGC was prepared to submit comments, but the rule was withdrawn before AGC could formally comment. In lieu of the rulemaking, OSHA announced it would continue to address this issue by:
- Conducting a thorough review of comments that have been submitted in response to the Federal Register notice and of any other information it receives on this issue.
- Holding a stakeholder meeting on preventing occupational hearing loss to elicit the views of employers, workers, and noise control and public health professionals.
- Consulting with experts from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Academy of Engineering.
- Initiating a robust outreach and compliance assistance effort to provide enhanced technical information and guidance on the many inexpensive, effective engineering controls for dangerous noise levels.