Category: Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released enforcement guidance for recording cases of COVID-19. Until further notice, OSHA will not enforce its record-keeping requirements to require employers to make work-relatedness determinations for COVID-19 cases, except where: (1) There is objective evidence that a COVID-19 case may be work-related; and (2) The evidence was reasonably available to the employer.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently released guidance to its regional administrators outlining enforcement discretion to permit the use of filtering facepiece respirators and air-purifying elastomeric respirators that are certified under certain standards of other countries or jurisdictions. The guidelines also address enforcement discretion to permit use when the equipment was previously certified under the standards of other countries or jurisdictions, but are beyond their manufacturer’s recommended shelf life. Essentially, OSHA compliance officers are being directed to verify that employers are:

• Making a good faith effort to use the most appropriate respiratory protection available;
• Ensuring that their respirator users are performing appropriate user seal checks;
• Training their respirator users to discard respirators with compromised structural and/or functional integrity:
• Inspecting, or requiring their respirator users to visually inspect the respirators for defects;
• Avoiding co-mingling of products from different categories of equipment; and
• Training employees on the procedures for the sequence of donning/doffing to prevent self-contamination.

OSHA ENFORCEMENT GUIDANCE

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently released guidelines to help combat supply shortages of disposable N95 filtering face piece respirators. The agency’s guidelines address alternatives to N95s, and extended use and reuse of the respirators. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which is the research arm of OSHA, also released N95 guidelines addressing extended use and reuse of the respirators, specifically for healthcare settings. The CDC/NIOSH guidelines are much more detailed than OSHA’s guidelines. Their recommendations are intended for use by professionals who manage respiratory protection programs in healthcare institutions to protect health care workers from job-related risks of exposure to infectious respiratory illnesses. However, the guidelines provide excellent information for anyone considering extended use or reuse of N95s. For example, the guidelines make the case that extended use is preferred over reuse of the respirators because extended use limits the number of times the respirators will be touched.  The guidelines address the risks of extended use and reuse, and provide independent sets of recommendations for extended use, and reuse.

OSHA GUIDELINES

CDC/NIOSH GUIDELINES

Whenever it’s feasible, it’s best to hire a reputable third party to perform facility cleaning and disinfection services. However, if it will be necessary for you or someone else from your company to perform the cleaning and disinfection service, the following guidelines may help protect that person from exposure to COVID-19. The best way to help protect yourself and others is to have all surfaces that may have been contaminated cleaned and disinfected. Cleaning refers to the removal of dirt and impurities. Disinfecting refers to the use of chemicals to kill the virus.

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With so many of us working remotely it’s important to consider the ergonomic design of our workspaces. MCAA’s long-time partner CNA is sharing with us Ergonomic Tips for Working Remotely. The CNA risk control bulletin makes recommendations on chair set-up and adjustments, monitor placement, laptop, keyboard and mouse use, and more.

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The UA, MCAA, ASSE and IAPMO have joined forces to bring our collective memberships information to be able to understand the risks of COVID-19 and show you the best ways to help prevent the spreading the virus among our pipefitters, plumbers, service technicians, sprinklerfitters, steamfitters and apprentices. Evaluating the exposures, understanding the risks and learning the most appropriate protective measures will help prepare you to establish an effective plan. Plumbers Local 75 member, Senior Director at IAPMO and ASSE, Scott Hamilton, describes the best-known safe work practices for helping mechanical industry workers avoid exposure to COVID-19.

Additional Resources:

• Guidelines for COVID-19 to Help Protect Mechanical Industry Slides
• Webinar Q&A

This webinar was recorded Thursday, March 26, 2020.