This book contains the occupational safety and health standards for the construction industry promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), effective January 2009. Although this is not an official OSHA publication, it reproduces the full text of regulations contained in the official OSHA government version at Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1926.

Also includes:

• Full text of the long-awaited & proposed rule on crane and derrick safety hazards
• 1903 regulations on inspections, citations, and proposed penalties
• 1904 regulations covering occupational injury and illness record-keeping and reporting
• 1990 carcinogen policy and model standards
• Entire text of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, including §5(a) (the "General Duty" clause)

Recent Amendments:

Important amendments, additions, and other changes to the OSHA standards have been implemented since the last edition was produced.

PPE respirator and training provisions:

Effective January 11, 2009, OSHA amended the PPE respirator and training provisions in the standards in Parts 1910 through 1926 to: (1) revise the language of the respiratory protection rule to explicitly state that the employer must provide each employee an appropriate respirator and implement a respiratory protection program for each employee, (2) revise the language of initial training paragraphs to explicitly state that the employer must train each employee, and (3) add a new section to the introductory Subparts of each Part to clarify that standards requiring the employer to provide PPE, including respirators, or to provide training to employees, impose a separate compliance duty to each employee covered by the requirement and that each instance of an employee who does not receive the required PPE or training may be considered a separate violation.

Excerpts from Part 1910:

Throughout the construction standards, there are cross-references to corresponding sections of the Part 1910 general industry standards. For your convenience, the editors of this book have inserted the complete text of selected general industry standards and, where they exist, corresponding appendices. These additional 1910 standards can be found in the Appendices section at the end of this book. A table ("Excerpts from 1910-CCH's "In-Place Reporting") is located at pp. xiii-xiv to help you find the federal government's Part 1926 cross references to the general industry standards.

The 1910 standards that have been included in this edition are:

• 1910.12 Construction Work
• 1910.19 Special Provisions for Air Contaminants
• 1910.132 General Requirements (Personal Protective Equipment)
• 1910.136 Occupational Foot Protection
• 1910.137 Electrical Protective Devices
• 1910.138 Hand protection
• 1910.146 Permit-required confined spaces
• 1910.147 Lockout/Tagout (plus 1910.147A-Appendix)
• 1910.178 Powered Industrial Trucks-Expanded Coverage
• 1910.332 Training-Electrical
• 1910.333 Selection and Use of Work Practices
• 1910.335 Safeguards for Personal Protection
• 1910.1030 Bloodborne Pathogens

Interpretation Letters:

OSHA's recent letters of interpretation reprinted in this edition allow employers and employees to see how the agency addresses certain compliance questions raised by the public. The initial letter discusses lineman belts and hooks that provide protection to employees from falls while climbing and/or performing work. This equipment is PPE and employers must pay for it when the equipment is used to comply with an OSHA standard.

Another letter discusses an employer's requirement to determine, in advance, whether employees are likely to disturb asbestos containing materials (ACM) or presumed asbestos containing materials (PACM) and to train accordingly. The letter notes that employees doing work in which ACM or PACM is likely to be disturbed must be trained to the Class III level. Also of interest is a letter that clarifies several recordkeeping scenarios regarding days away from work, restricted work activity, and work-relatedness.

Training requirements are addressed in another letter, which provides guidance on whether a single 12-hour combination course can meet both the HAZWOPER refresher training requirement under 29 CFR 1910.120(e)(8) and the OSHA 10-hour construction industry outreach training program. A 12-hour combination-training program may be offered, provided the appropriate subjects or topics for the HAZWOPER refresher training and also those subjects or topics required in the OSHA guidelines for the 10-hour construction industry outreach training are both satisfied.

The Bloodborne Pathogens standard addresses the requirement for blood testing as part of a post-exposure evaluation, and a letter clarifies that an employer may not have employees sign a consent form waiving the right to have untested baseline blood maintained for the minimum time limitation of 90 days.

Employee injuries sustained in company parking lot, neither of which involved a motor vehicle accident but resulted from injuries when the employees fell out of their parked vehicle and struck the parking lot, must be recorded on the establishment's log if they meet the other recording criteria, according to another letter. OSHA does not have any specific requirements related to the longitudinal spacing of means of emergency egress for non-construction employees, cast steps, or otherwise in concrete drainage ditches; consequently, another letter discusses an employer's compliance duty under the General Duty clause in such circumstances. In response to a request to provide a list of corrosive materials and concentrations requiring use of emergency eyewashes and showers, a letter notes that OSHA does not have a listing of corrosive materials that would require an eyewash and/or emergency shower. A final letter discusses the requirements for tapping or tying-in to asbestos-containing cement water pipes in construction, specifically whether the work involved is considered a Class II or Class III asbestos work activity.

Product enhancements:

As part of CCH's ongoing efforts to improve the quality of our products, we have chosen a brighter, heavier paper to improve the brightness and quality of the pages. Green highlights emphasizing standard numbers and other important content remain a continuing feature. Sections have been tabbed throughout the book; each section includes a full citation line for easy reference; the reformatted index has been retained, and includes page numbers; graphics have been separated from text by a color border; and the 2004 recordkeeping forms are reproduced. Furthermore, "Appendices" contains the following elements: Standards Interpretation Letters; OSHA Posters: State Plan information; CPL-02-00-124 [CPL-2-0.124] Multi-Employer Citation Policy; OSHA Field Inspection Reference Manual CPL 2.103, Section 6, Chapter II, Inspection Procedures, and much more. This edition's appendices also contain the full text of the long-awaited proposed rule to protect employees from the construction hazards associated with the use of crane and derrick hoisting equipment.