You may be asking, what the heck is this all about… you mean OSHA is prohibited from inspecting “small businesses who have PSM covered processes” – YES, in some NAICS’s OSHA has been prohibited from doing PSM inspections when the small businesses are within an industry that has lower than national average injury rates. Now I am sure you are asking, what the heck do injury rates have to do with process safety risks? And you would be asking the same question that OSHA is asking of Congress, that same group of elected officials that beat OSHA over their heads with the “Baker Report” from the 2005 BP-Texas City Explosion in which the report says we MUST separate out “process risks” from “occupational injury risks”, yet somehow those elected officials felt inclined to use injury/illness rates as a metric to prohibit OSHA from enforcing 1910.119. Must I need to remind everyone that West Fertilizer in West, TX (that “small businesses” that blew up killing 14) would be OFF-LIMITS for OSHA to inspect under this budget! Here are OSHA’s request and rationale to CHANGE the language in their budget…
EXPLANATION OF LANGUAGE CHANGE
The Administration proposes amending the appropriations language under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to allow targeted safety and health inspections of small establishments that have the potential for catastrophic incidents, specifically those covered by OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) regulations or the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions with the exception of certain specified small farms.
The current appropriations language limits OSHA’s ability to conduct safety and health inspections of small businesses (10 or fewer employees) in industry codes that have lower-than-average workplace injury and illness rates. Neither the number of workers in a business nor the level of injury and illness rates, are predictive of the potential for high-consequence catastrophic incidents, resulting in multiple casualties and extensive property damage, such as those caused by the West Fertilizer explosion in West, Texas.
In order to prevent future catastrophic incidents, the Administration believes Congress should modify the appropriations language to allow targeted inspections of small establishments that have the potential for catastrophic incidents (e.g., those covered by OSHA’s PSM standard or EPA’s Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions). The language exempts small employers conducting farming, harvesting, or processing operations on farms.