News Release USDL: 96-354
Friday, August 30, 1996
Contact: Frank Kane (202) 219-8151

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued additional clarifications and corrections to its final asbestos standards for general industry, construction work and shipyard work.

The final standards were issued Aug. 10, 1994, and were corrected and clarified June 29, 1995, and Sept. 29, 1995.

The corrections being made now are based on the existing rulemaking record and are not intended to affect the worker protection afforded by the standards in a significant way. OSHA therefore is promulgating the corrections without opportunity for public comment.

Among the provisions are:

• Employers must inform employees required to wear respirators that they may choose to require the employer to provide a powered air-purifying respirator instead of a negative-pressure respirator.

• Employers must assure employee comprehension of warning signs and labels required by the standards. OSHA is not mandating that the signs and labels be written in languages other than English. Pictographs and graphics can be used to assure comprehension.

• The requirement for a 32-hour training course for workers engaged in Class II removals of asbestos containing material as part of general asbestos abatement work was inadvertently deleted in an earlier correction, and is restored and clarified. Thirty-two hour training is required when Class II operations require controls such as critical barriers or negative-pressure enclosures.

• Training for workers who engage in other Class II removals must include training in each category of material the employee removes and in each work practice and each removal method the employee uses.

• A training course may use written materials and electronic media such as videotapes or computer-based training, but a knowledgeable person (such as a person who qualifies as a "competent person" for the particular type of asbestos work addressed in the training) must be available to answer questions during the training.

Clarification or corrections also are made for provisions for medical surveillance; Class III work (where a small amount of asbestos-containing material must be cut away to access mechanical or structural components of buildings), and Class IV work (where employees clean up an area after a Class I, II, or III job in that area is completed).

Notice of the changes and clarifications was published in the Friday, Aug. 23, 1996, Federal Register. The amendments are effective Sept. 23, 1996.