On June 27, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a proposed rule to revoke the ancillary provisions of the Beryllium final rule for the construction and shipyard sectors that OSHA finalized on Jan. 9, 2017. The January final rule points directly to the construction task of abrasive blasting operations which use slags that contain trace amounts of beryllium.

The proposal seeks to revoke the ancillary provisions but retain the permissible exposure limit of .2 micrograms per cubic meter of air as an eight-hour weighted average and the short-term exposure limit of 2.0 micrograms per cubic meter of air, which is fifteen minutes. 

The public has until Aug. 28, 2017 to submit comments on this proposal. On March 9, ABC and other construction groups filed a petition against the final rule, which remains pending at this time.

For more information on the Jan. 9, 2017, final rule please see OSHA’s website.