The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) has challenged a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed rule to regulate the use of safety eyewear and hard hats, and offered an alternative approach that ISEA says would maintain worker protection.
In comments submitted July 16, ISEA said the agency's May 17, 2007, proposal to change the way it recognizes product performance standards for personal protective equipment (PPE) could potentially reduce the level of protection for workers and make compliance with the rule more difficult for employers.
Current OSHA regulations require that eye and head protection devices meet product performance standards issued under the banner of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI standards are voluntary, but they are widely accepted in the United States and recognized by OSHA and numerous other regulatory agencies.
OSHA adopts specific product performance standards, and the standards may go through several revisions before OSHA is able to update its rules to incorporate the newer versions.
Under the OSHA proposal, however, references to these standards would be replaced with a requirement that PPE meet “good design standards,” an approach that ISEA says offers no assurance of a minimum level of protection.
ISEA's alternative would maintain the reference to the current version of the standard, and include a method by which OSHA could evaluate standards that offer equivalent protection and allow employers to use products meeting those standards.
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