The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has scheduled two additional stakeholder meetings, one in Washington, D.C., and one in Sacramento, Calif., to solicit comments in developing the Injury and Illness Prevention Program proposed rule. These additional meetings are part of a series of five.

The stakeholder meetings are informal discussions to provide OSHA with the necessary information to develop a rule that will help employers reduce workplace injuries and illnesses through a systematic process proactively addressing workplace safety and health hazards.

"With this proposal, we will be asking employers to find and fix the hazards in their workplaces," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels. "This common sense rule will help make the secretary of labor's vision of 'good jobs for everyone' a reality."

More information on OSHA's Injury and Illness Prevention Program is available in a May 2010 Federal Register notice at http://s.dol.gov/35.

Two meetings already have been conducted in East Brunswick, N.J., and Dallas, Texas. Registration for a third meeting in Washington, D.C., to be held June 29 has reached full capacity. To allow more stakeholders to provide input, OSHA has scheduled another Washington meeting for July 20 and the Sacramento meeting for Aug. 3. All meetings will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time.  AGC will be represented by Kevin Cannon at the June 29 meeting.

Anyone interested in participating in the newly added meetings should submit a notice of intent to participate through https://www2.ergweb.com/projects/conferences/osha/register-osha-I2P2.htm. Submissions also can be mailed to Eastern Research Group Inc., 110 Hartwell Ave., Lexington, MA 02421, Attention: OSHA I2P2 Stakeholder Meeting Registration. Or fax submissions to 781-674-2906 labeled "Attention: OSHA I2P2 Stakeholder Meeting Registration."

Submission deadlines for confirmed registration are July 6 for the Washington meeting and July 20 for the Sacramento meeting. After these deadlines, registration will remain open until the meetings are full.

For questions and comments, please contact Kevin Cannon, Director Safety & Health Services at cannonk@agc.org.

WASHINGTON – OSHA announced today that the Severe Violators Enforcement Program directive is effective June 18^th. The agency announced in April that it was implementing the program to focus on employers who continually disregard their legal obligations to protect their workers.

OSHA’s SVEP focuses enforcement efforts on employers who willfully and repeatedly endanger workers by exposing them to serious hazards. The directive establishes procedures and enforcement actions for the severe violator program, including increased inspections, such as mandatory follow-up inspections of a workplace found in violation and inspections of other worksites of the same company where similar hazards or deficiencies may be present.

The directive explains that the SVEP is intended to focus enforcement efforts on employers who have demonstrated recalcitrance or indifference to their OSH Act obligations by committing willful, repeated or failure-to-abate violations in one or more of the following circumstances: a fatality or catastrophe situation; in industry operations or processes that expose workers to severe occupational hazards; exposing workers to hazards related to the potential releases of highly hazardous chemicals; and all egregious enforcement actions.

Visit the Severe Violator Enforcement Program directive for more details.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to assure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

OSHA is confirming the effective date of June 15, 2010 for the direct final rule requiring employers to notify their workers of all hexavalent chromium exposures. The rule revises a provision in OSHA's Hexavalent Chromium standard that required workers be notified only when they experienced exposures exceeding the permissible exposure limit. Workers exposed to this toxic chemical are at greater risk for lung cancer and damage to the nose, throat and respiratory tract.

Occupational exposures to hexavalent chromium can occur among workers handling pigments, spray paints and coatings containing chromates, operating chrome plating baths, and welding or cutting metals containing chromium, such as stainless steel. Workers breathing hexavalent chromium compounds in high concentrations over extended periods of time may risk developing lung cancer, irritation or damage to the eyes and skin.

OSHA requested public comments on the revised requirement in a March 17, 2010, Direct Final Rule and accompanying Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. This was done in response to a Third Circuit Court's decision that the agency failed to explain why it departed from the proposed rule that would require notifying workers of all hexavalent chromium exposures. The Agency received no significant adverse comments, therefore it is proceeding with the Direct Final Rule and withdrawing the accompanying Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

Visit OSHA's Safety and Health Topics page on Hexavalent Chromium for more information on protecting workers from exposure to this chemical.