This approach “maintains the level of performance of PPE that meets the consensus standard in the current regulation, so that worker protection is not compromised,” according to the ISEA submission. It gives employers the flexibility to select PPE that best meets their workers' needs, based on hazard assessment.
And it gives OSHA the flexibility to update references to consensus standards when they are revised, and add new product standards as they are issued without a lengthy and laborious regulatory process.
“We fully appreciate what OSHA is trying to do in this rulemaking,” said ISEA President Dan Shipp. “They aren't able to keep up with revisions to the product standards they reference in their regulations, and they're searching for a way to keep the rules current without having to go through a full rulemaking every few years for each standard."
“But to take those references out of the regulation, and replace them with the requirement that PPE comply with some vaguely defined good design standard shows a lack of understanding of the role of performance standards and their use in regulation.”
In its comments, ISEA points out that there are hundreds of PPE product standards around the world that might qualify as good design standards, but that they are not equivalent to the ANSI standards that have been part of the regulation.
Without the reference to a specific standard in the regulatory text, OSHA would provide no baseline performance requirements for PPE, ISEA said.
“If the rule is published the way OSHA is proposing it, the ANSI standards would still be the baseline, and OSHA would include them in an appendix as examples of what makes a good design standard,” Shipp said. “But what happens in the future?”
The proposed requirements for a good design standard are that it incorporate safety, that it is recognized as providing an adequate level of protection, and that the standards-developing organization use an open process that considers the views of a broad constituency.
“There's nothing in this proposal that says the standards recognized in the future have to be as protective as standards recognized,” Shipp said. “That's why we're trying to convince OSHA not to take the reference to a specific standard out of the regulatory text.”
International Safety Equipment Association
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