A recent news item demonstrates that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is serious about enforcing its crystalline silica rule which became effective on June 23, 2018. The American Foundry Society can help your metalcasting facility to work towards compliance and prepare for your next visit from OSHA.
AFS has the resources and documents to make sure you and your foundry are doing whatever you can to follow the law, and stresses the importance of having a detailed and accurate silica compliance plan. As you may have seen in press reports, one foundry was just hit with over $270,000 in proposed fines for silica and safety violations.
AFS is committed to aiding foundries with compliance issues and other key safety regulations.
AFS has a web page dedicated to silica compliance. There, you will find archived webinars, OSHA resources, detailed information on the rule, and other assets to keep you out of the crosshairs.
To avoid what happened recently to that metalcaster, you must view silica compliance just as critically. AFS has the tools to assist you.
For AFS members, use your login at www.afsinc.org to access Casting Connection for another document, the Silica Handbook for Small and Medium-Sized Foundries.
For more information, contact Stephanie Salmon, AFS Vice President of Government Affairs, at ssalmon@afsinc.org; or Juliette Garesche, Senior Environmental, Health & Safety Technical Director, at jgaresche@afsinc.org.