A number of wood product associations, including the National Wood Flooring Association, have opposed a proposed regulation that would change the permissible exposure limit (PEL) in California to 1 milligram per cubic meter for wood dust.
A number of wood product associations, including the National Wood Flooring Association, have opposed a proposed regulation that would change the permissible exposure limit (PEL) in California to 1 milligram per cubic meter for wood dust.
The regulation, developed by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, would reduce the eight-hour time-weight average permissible exposure limit from 5 milligrams per cubic meter of air to 1 milligram per cubic meter of air for softwood and hardwood dust, except Western red cedar. The regulation would also reduce the 15-minute short-term exposure limit from 10 milligrams per cubic meter to 5 milligrams per cubic meter.
According to the Initial Statement of Reasons, the Division “believes that employees in the wood manufacturing industry in California will benefit from improved respiratory health as a result of the adoption of these amended PELs.”
However, in a letter to California OSHA, the American Wood Council, NWFA and 11 other signatories argued that the proposed PEL is not feasible for a “substantial portion of the affected California companies.”
The letter also argues the Division failed to demonstrate that exposures to wood dust below the current PEL have harmful effects on workers, ignored the best available data on the subject and dramatically underestimated the cost burden of the proposed regulation to California industry.
The letter concluded: “AWC encourages California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to carefully reconsider the path of this rulemaking … and issue a revised proposal for a wood dust PEL that is supported by substantial evidence.”