OSHA to Initiate Rulemaking Oct. 21 on New Combustible Dust Standard

Posted on 10/21/2009

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Oct. 21 is scheduled to begin its rulemaking process to develop a broad, comprehensive combustible dust standard that would apply across different industry sectors. In an advance notice of proposed rulemaking obtained today by the NGFA, OSHA poses a series of 69 questions (several of which have multiple parts) on which it is soliciting public comment by Jan. 19, responses to which the agency said will serve as the basis for developing a proposed combustible dust standard next year. The OSHA notice specifically cites the existing grain-handling safety standard as an example of how such a standard has reduced the number of incidents and fatalities in an industry sector, but it does not specifically rule out at this preliminary stage developing additional regulations for any industry sector. The agency also poses a question (number 56) in which it asks whether any revisions are needed to portions of the grain-handling standard that address fires and explosions, whether it should be harmonized with the approach ultimately taken by OSHA for other combustible dusts, whether it should be incorporated into a new combustible dust standard and, if OSHA retained it as a separate standard, whether doing so would cause portions of grain-handling facilities to be covered by two separate OSHA standards.

The NGFA understands that OSHA plans prior to the comment deadline to conduct three separate stakeholder public meetings in various parts of the country, which have not been announced yet. While OSHA’s advance notice cites multiple significant explosion incidents across various industry sectors over the past 15 years, additional momentum for initiating the rulemaking was provided by the explosion at the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Port Wentworth, Ga., in early 2008, which killed 14 and injured 36 others. OSHA terms its current regulations on combustible dusts “fragmented and incomplete,” stating that they do not “provide a comprehensive set of requirements to fully address all of the prevention and mitigation methods specific to combustible dust hazards,” including such prevention and mitigation steps as ignition sources and engineering controls.

In the notice, OSHA states that industries that “may have” combustible dust hazards include: agriculture, animal food manufacturing, grain handling, food manufacturing, wood product manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, textile manufacturing, furniture manufacturing, metal processing, fabricated metal products and machinery manufacturing, pesticide manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, tire manufacturing, rubber and plastic production and manufacturing, recycling, wastewater treatment, and coal handling and processing. As an indicator of which industries “may be affected” by a forthcoming OSHA combustible dust standard, the agency identified industry sectors that had reported combustible dust explosion incidents from 1980-2008. In the agricultural sector, wet corn mills had by far the most reported incidents – 21 – while animal feed manufacturing and grain and oilseed milling operations had five each and bakeries had four. Other industry sectors for which significant numbers of combustible dust incidents had been reported include: primary metal manufacturing (32), chemical manufacturing (31), wood manufacturing (28), utilities and electrical power generators (28), fabricated metal product manufacturing (27), paper manufacturing (18), plastics and rubber products (17), transportation equipment manufacturing (16), reconstituted wood production manufacturing (14), textile mills (11) and basic inorganic chemical manufacturing (11). OSHA said it plans to evaluate affected industries to determine “the most effective way to regulate the combustible dust hazards present,” and said it “may be appropriate for OSHA to treat specific industries differently, based at least in part on current national consensus standards.”

The specific questions posed by OSHA are grouped into 15 broad categories: 1) industry background; 2) definition of combustible dust; 3) hazard recognition; 4) hazard assessment; 5) hazard communication and training, including whether combustible dust risks are identified on material safety data sheets; 6) existing consensus, industry and insurance standards; 7) the applicability of state and local codes; 8) the use of engineering controls designed to prevent or mitigate the damage of a combustible dust incident; 9) administrative controls (work practices, operational procedures, equipment maintenance, etc.), including current methods for capturing dust emissions, performing housekeeping and controlling potential ignition sources; 10) emergency response procedures; 11) policies for investigating combustible dust incidents; 12) the regulatory approach OSHA should take, including whether to base a standard on individual types of combustible dusts, whether to require facilities to conduct a combustible dust hazard assessment, whether to incorporate National Fire Protection Association standards by reference, whether to require engineering controls to control fugitive combustible dust and whether to incorporate hazards associated with firefighting into a new combustible dust standard; 13) economic costs and benefits; 14) impacts on small businesses; and 15) the effectiveness of OSHA’s existing and future compliance assistance on combustible dusts.

The NGFA/GEAPS Safety, Health and Environmental Quality Committee and its Combustible Dust Task Force will be spearheading the organizations’ efforts on this rulemaking. Click here to access an advance copy of OSHA’s combustible dust Federal Register notice.