EHS Administration

Mark Your Calendar: 12 Safety Regulations With Annual Requirements, Part 2

A lot of OSHA standards require that you prepare a written program, provide training, or perform inspections as part of your compliance with the standard. Some of these requirements need only be completed one time; some only require review or updating when there is a change affecting them. But some OSHA standards require you to revisit your compliance at least once a year.

Yesterday, we looked at six OSHA standards with annual requirements. Today, we’ll look at six more.

7. July: Respiratory Protection

If you have workers enrolled in a respiratory protection program, there are some parts of that program that require annual attention:

Fit tests. For workers wearing tight-fitting facepiece respirators, annual fit tests are required. 

Training. The respirator standard requires at least annual retraining.

8. August: Permit Required Confined Spaces

Employers who have a permit required confined space program must annually review the program, using the canceled permits, and revise the program as needed to ensure that employees are protected from permit space hazards. If no entries were conducted during the preceding 12 months, a review is not required.

9. September: Ionizing Radiation

Employers who are required to maintain records of employee exposure to ionizing radiation must tell those employees what their individual exposure amounted to on an annual basis.

10. October: Hazardous Chemical Exposures

Some of the hazardous chemical standards found in Subpart Z have annual requirements.

Laboratory employers who have written chemical hygiene plans are required to review and evaluate the effectiveness of their plan at least once a year, and update it as needed.

Some hazardous chemical exposures are covered by chemical-specific standards. Not all of those standards have annual requirements, but some do.

Annual medical evaluations and annual retraining are required by the asbestos standard, the 13 carcinogens standard, the vinyl chloride standard, the inorganic arsenic standard, the lead standard, the cadmium standard, the benzene standard, the coke oven emissions standard, the cotton dust standard, the 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane standard (medical evaluations only), the acrylonitrile standard, the ethylene oxide standard, the formaldehyde standard, the methylenedianiline standard, and the 1,3-butadiene standard.

Annual written program updates are required by the vinyl chloride standard, the inorganic arsenic standard, the cadmium standard, the coke oven emissions standard, the 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane standard, and the acrylonitrile standard.

11. November: Mechanical Power Presses

Employers whose workers operate mechanical power presses are required to conduct a safety system certification/validation prior to the initial use of any mechanical press with a presence-sensing device initiation (PSDI) mode. The design of the safety system required for the use of a press in the PSDI mode must be certified and validated before and after installation. Afterward, the safety system on a mechanical press used in PSDI mode must be recertified by the employer and revalidated by an OSHA-recognized third-party validation organization at least once a year.

In addition, operators of power presses that can operate in PSDI mode must be retrained at least annually.

12. December: Employee Medical and Exposure Records

Employers are required to keep records of employee exposures, and any medical records arising from work-related exposures. Every year, employers are required to inform current employees of

  • The existence, location, and availability of those records,
  • The person responsible for maintaining and providing access to records; and
  • Each employee’s rights of access to these records.

Need assistance with any of these annual requirements? Safety.BLR.com has the resources you need.

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