The Div. of Occupational Safety & Health (DOSH), Dept. Ind Relations for the State of California scheduled a hearing May 18/05 to review proposed new permissible exposure limits (PELs) under the California State OSHA plan for 14 substances. In this process, DOSH is considering lowering the PEL for airborne refractory ceramic fibre from 0.2 to 0.1 fibre/cm3, and reducing the PEL for crystalline silica from the current federal level equivalent of 0.1 to 0.01mg/m3 - a 90% reduction!! While there has always been some debate about what level of crystalline silica is safe, no one has ever suggested a PEL so low. If this were to become law, most agricultural, mining, construction & mineral processing facilities in the state would be out of compliance, facing huge investment costs that still might not solve the problem.
