Cal/OSHA Standards Board votes to adopt permanent silica standard

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted to adopt a permanent standard to protect workers from respirable crystalline silica. The approval follows an emergency temporary standard put in place in December 2023. California’s Office of Administrative Law has 30 working days to approve or deny the standard.

If approved, the permanent standard would continue and strengthen the existing emergency silica standard with improved safety measures, monitoring, and reporting requirements to address the risks associated with silica exposure, as well as strengthen enforcement capabilities.

Since 2019, over 230 stone fabrication workers in California have developed silicosis, a progressive, incurable lung disease caused by prolonged exposure to silica dust. The standard would protect these and other workers involved in tasks such as grinding, cutting, polishing, and cleanup of artificial stone products containing more than point one percent crystalline silica and natural stone containing more than 10 percent crystalline silica.