OSHA hearings end, finalizing begins

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 7/1/2000

Eight years after the Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) first began considering an ergonomics standard and 8 months after a proposed ergonomics standard went to the Federal Register, comments are still pouring in as people debate the agency's proposal.

Nine weeks of public hearings ended May 12. It is estimated 1,000 people attended the hearings. During the next 45-day period, known as the post hearing, roughly 10,000 people sent in written comments, says Gary Orr, team leader of ergonomics proposal team at OSHA.

According to Orr, the three major issues that generated a lot of pros and cons at the hearings were: A single incident trigger; issuing a citation; and work restriction protection.

A second 45-day period of briefings, concerning the legal aspects rather than the science of the standard, is now underway.

On August 10, the briefing period ends and OSHA will begin to finalize the standards based on the final record, created from the public hearings and written comments.

At that time, OSHA will send the new proposed ergonomic standard to Congress for their review and final vote for or against the standard. Orr estimates that the final ergonomic standard will not be set until December of this year.

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"We must change the distribution philosophy of the '90s, which sought to reduce product contact, with a new philosophy of touching the stock keeping unit once and out the door."
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