On May 11th OSHA began enforcement of certain requirements of the beryllium standard.  For generally industry, construction and shipyards this included the permissible exposure limits.  Further, in general industry enforcement began for the requirements of an exposure assessment, respiratory protection, medical surveillance and medical removal. While OSHA began enforcement of some of the these requirements it had previously announced a delay in enforcement of other ancillary provisions for general industry until June 25, 2018 and that it intended to issue a proposal to further extend this compliance date for the ancillary provisions to Dec. 12, 2018.

In last Friday’s Federal Register (June 1, 2018) OSHA announced its proposed rule to extend the compliance date for “certain ancillary requirements of the general industry beryllium standard” from March 12, 2018 to December 12, 2018.

However, the proposed extension does not delay enforcement for the following requirements in general industry:

• Permissible exposure limits (PELS)
• Exposure assessment
• Respiratory protection
• Medical surveillance
• Medical removal protection provisions
• Any provisions where the compliance dates in the standard take effect in 2019 and 2020

For the construction and shipyard industries, only the permissible exposure limits and short term exposure limit are being enforced until OSHA undertakes additional rulemaking for those industries. OSHA believes that the proposed extension for general industry “will maintain essential safety and health protections for workers” while the Agency works to “clarify specific provisions” in the beryllium standard weighing the health and safety of workers against the burdens placed on employers in complying with the standard.

Comments to the proposed rule may be submitted to OSHA by July 2, 2018. The Federal Register, including detailed instructions on how to submit may be found here.