Finding of Emergency Section 5204 , Occupational Exposures to Respirable Crystalline Silica Business Meeting : December 14 , 2023 Page 13 of 36
• 18 workers ( 20 %) reported completing a respirator fit test within the previous 12 months .
• 5 workers ( 5 %) reported that their employers had sent them or their co-workers for required silica medical examinations .
These findings are consistent with Cal / OSHA ’ s citations issued under the 2019 SEP , which found 72 % of employers in violation of the silica standard , as described above .
13 ) The existing silica standard is not well suited to the artificial stone fabrication industry .
The evidence of widespread non-compliance identified by Cal / OSHA in the 2019 SEP , combined with the emergence of serious silicosis cases and deaths among workers in this industry , suggests that section 5204 is not well-calibrated to the needs of the artificial stone fabrication industry .
This industry is made up primarily of small shops : it consists of about 808 fabrication shops , each of which operates with a median of five employees ( range 1 to 30 ). 44 , 45 Section 5204 is primarily a performance-based standard that relies on the employer to conduct relatively sophisticated exposure assessments to determine required silica exposure controls . This approach is best suited to well-resourced , large employers ; it is less effective for small businesses , which typically do not have the capacity ( and may lack the willingness ) to conduct technically sound assessments .
Sixty eight percent of artificial stone fabrication employers inspected in the 2019 SEP did not conduct a silica exposure assessment . 46 Where the employer has not conducted an exposure assessment , Cal / OSHA must conduct its own full-shift exposure assessments , which is timeconsuming , highly variable and easily manipulated by employers . For example , in Cal / OSHA ’ s experience , employers have reduced production or reassigned workers on days when sampling by Cal / OSHA will be conducted . This requires Cal / OSHA to reschedule sampling , or it results in low sampling results that do not reflect the normal conditions in the shop ; in either case , Cal / OSHA is prevented from enforcing the silica standard and requiring exposure prevention measures .
44
Surasi K , et al ( 2022 ), Elevated exposures . op . cit . https :// pubmed . ncbi . nlm . nih . gov / 35899403 /
45
An August 2023 an internal CDPH Occupational Health Branch ( OHB ) analysis of the OHB dataset on artificial stone fabrication shops confirmed that the median number of employees is 5 , based on a sample of 653 shops evaluated .
46
August 2023 CDPH OHB analysis . ibid .