Study guide · Law & Business · Safety
Hazardous and Unknown Materials: Asbestos, Lead, and Chemical Hazard Communication
About 89 minutes · 6 sections
What this guide covers
Two questions decide almost everything on this topic, and both are answered by a measurement or a definition rather than by judgment. First: does the rule reach you at all? Asbestos work crosses a registration line at one hundred square feet, and a material counts as asbestos-containing at one-tenth of one percent by weight. Below those lines a different set of duties applies. Above them you must be registered with the state before the work starts. Second: what do you owe the people on your site? Every employer with a hazardous chemical in the workplace owes a written program, a safety data sheet, a label, and training before first assignment. And on a job with several trades, the written program has to say how you will tell the other employers' crews about the hazards you brought.
Key terms
- Asbestos-related work
- Any activity that, by disturbing asbestos-containing construction materials, may release asbestos fibers into the air. Four things are excluded. Its manufacture. The mining or excavation of asbestos-bearing ore or materials. The installation or repair of automotive materials containing asbestos. And the installation, repair, maintenance or nondestructive removal of asbestos cement pipe used OUTSIDE of buildings — that last one only where exposures stay at or below the action level, and the employees and supervisors have completed an approved task-specific training program with written certification.
- Asbestos-containing construction material
- Any manufactured construction material that contains more than one-tenth of 1 percent asbestos by weight. The threshold is measured BY WEIGHT and it is very low — a material can be 'asbestos-containing' at a small fraction of one percent, which is well below what most people assume.
- Action level vs. permissible exposure limit
- Two different lines doing two different jobs. The PERMISSIBLE EXPOSURE LIMIT is the ceiling — exposure above it is a violation. The ACTION LEVEL sits below the PEL and is the standard's secondary trigger: crossing it is not itself a violation. What it triggers VARIES BY STANDARD and must be read in each one. Under the chromium standard, for instance, an exposure determination is owed for every covered employee regardless of the action level. There the action level instead governs whether monitoring continues and when medical surveillance attaches. For lead the action level is measured WITHOUT REGARD TO RESPIRATOR USE, so protecting workers does not bring you back under it.
- PACM (presumed asbestos-containing material)
- Thermal system insulation and surfacing material found in buildings constructed no later than 1980. For Cal/OSHA's asbestos standard the word 'asbestos' INCLUDES PACM, so the duties attach to that material in a pre-1981 building without anyone having tested it. The presumption is rebuttable, but only through the standard's own rebuttal route.
The rules the exam tests
30 rules · 19 minAsbestos
Asbestos-related work is any work that may release fibers by disturbing asbestos-containing construction material.
Under the Labor Code's asbestos chapter, three activities are excluded from asbestos-related work: manufacture of asbestos, mining or excavation of asbestos-bearing ore or materials, and installation or repair of automotive materials containing asbestos. Work that may release fibers counts, so actual release is not required.
On the job
Three activities are carved out of the definition entirely and no other entry covers them: manufacture of asbestos, mining or excavation of asbestos-bearing ore or materials, and the installation or repair of automotive materials containing asbestos.
Exact wording
For the Labor Code's asbestos chapter, 'asbestos-related work' means any activity which by disturbing asbestos-containing construction materials may release asbestos fibers into the air, and which is not related to its manufacture, the mining or excavation of asbestos-bearing ore or materials, or the installation or repair of automotive materials containing asbestos.
A manufactured construction material counts as asbestos-containing above one-tenth of one percent asbestos.
This is the definition used throughout the Labor Code's asbestos chapter. Content is measured by weight: more than one-tenth of one percent is asbestos-containing construction material, so a small fraction of one percent is enough to count.
On the job
The threshold is far below what most people assume, so a material can be asbestos-containing at a fraction of one percent and pull the work into the registration regime.
Exact wording
For the Labor Code's asbestos chapter, 'asbestos containing construction material' means any manufactured construction material that contains more than one-tenth of one percent asbestos by weight.
Trained crews doing outdoor asbestos cement pipe work within the action level aren't doing asbestos-related work.
The carve-out applies only if all four of these hold: your job is installation, repair, maintenance, or nondestructive removal; the asbestos cement pipe is used outside of buildings; exposures to employees stay at or below the action level determined under the Title 8 asbestos standards, which are Cal/OSHA's safety rules; and your employees and supervisors have completed an approved task-specific training program with written certification of completion. Destructive removal falls outside the carve-out no matter how well the other three are met. Falling outside the chapter's definition drops the permit and registration duties triggered by that definition, not the Title 8 asbestos standards themselves.
On the job
This is the one carve-out from the asbestos regime a contractor is likely to meet, and it has FOUR gates rather than three. The operation must be installation, repair, maintenance or NONDESTRUCTIVE removal. The pipe must be used outside a building. Exposures must stay at or below the action level. And the employees and supervisors must hold written certification from an approved task-specific training program. Destructive removal is outside the carve-out however well the other three are met.
Exact wording
For the Labor Code's asbestos chapter, 'asbestos-related work' does NOT include the installation, repair, maintenance, or nondestructive removal of asbestos cement pipe used OUTSIDE of buildings, but only if that work does not result in asbestos exposures to employees in excess of the action level determined under the Title 8 asbestos standards, AND the employees and supervisors involved have received training through an approved task-specific training program with written certification of completion. The carve-out removes the work from THAT CHAPTER'S definition — which is what drives permit and registration duties — and does not exempt it from the Title 8 asbestos standards themselves.
Keep every employee under 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter as an eight-hour average.
Employee exposure here means the airborne asbestos the employee would breathe if not using respiratory protective equipment. So workers wearing respirators can still put you over the 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter eight-hour average.
On the job
The limit is measured as if nobody were wearing a respirator. Respiratory protection does not bring you under the PEL — it protects the worker while you bring the AIR under it with engineering controls and work practices. Getting this backwards is how a job runs for weeks out of compliance with everyone masked up.
Exact wording
The employer must ensure that no employee is exposed to an airborne concentration of asbestos in excess of 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air as an eight-hour time-weighted average. For this standard 'employee exposure' means the exposure to airborne asbestos that WOULD OCCUR IF THE EMPLOYEE WERE NOT USING respiratory protective equipment.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Keep every employee at or below 1.0 fiber per cubic centimeter in any thirty-minute sample.
The excursion limit runs separately from the eight-hour limit, so shift averaging is no defense. As the employer, you must ensure no employee is exposed to airborne asbestos above 1.0 fiber per cubic centimeter, averaged over a thirty-minute sampling period.
On the job
Two limits run at once and a short burst can breach the excursion limit while the eight-hour average still looks compliant, so averaging over the shift is not a defense.
Exact wording
Separately from the eight-hour limit, the employer must ensure that no employee is exposed to an airborne concentration of asbestos in excess of 1.0 fiber per cubic centimeter of air averaged over a sampling period of thirty minutes — the excursion limit.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Asbestos removal is Class I or II. Repair is Class III and cleanup Class IV.
Class I is removal of thermal system insulation and surfacing material that is asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing. Class II is removal of asbestos-containing material that is not thermal system insulation or surfacing material, including but not limited to asbestos-containing wallboard, floor tile and sheeting, roofing and siding shingles, and construction mastics. Class III is repair and maintenance operations where asbestos-containing material is likely to be disturbed. Class IV is maintenance and custodial activities where you contact but do not disturb asbestos-containing material, and cleanup of the dust, waste and debris left by Class I, II and III activities.
On the job
The class is not a label an employer chooses — it follows from what the material is and what the work does to it, and it is what determines the control requirements. Most general building work that meets asbestos lands in Class II or III.
Exact wording
The asbestos standard sorts construction work into four classes that decide which duties apply. Class I is activities involving the removal of thermal system insulation and surfacing asbestos-containing material or presumed asbestos-containing material. Class II is the removal of asbestos-containing material that is not thermal system insulation or surfacing material, including but not limited to asbestos-containing wallboard, floor tile and sheeting, roofing and siding shingles, and construction mastics. Class III is repair and maintenance operations where asbestos-containing material is likely to be disturbed. Class IV is maintenance and custodial activities during which employees contact but do not disturb asbestos-containing material, and activities to clean up dust, waste and debris resulting from Class I, II and III activities.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Asbestos-containing material means over one percent asbestos. The construction-material figure is one-tenth of 1 percent.
Asbestos-containing material generally means any material with more than one percent asbestos. Asbestos-containing construction material means any manufactured construction material with more than one-tenth of 1 percent asbestos by weight. That lower figure is defined for the asbestos-consultant subsection and the Report of Use and registration subsection, and applies only there.
On the job
A manufactured construction material at half a percent is asbestos-containing construction material for the registration question, and is NOT ACM under the general definition. So the answer depends on which question is being asked. Carrying one figure across to the other question is the error.
Exact wording
Two different asbestos content thresholds run inside the Cal/OSHA asbestos standard itself, scoped to different parts of it. Generally, 'asbestos-containing material' (ACM) means any material containing more than one percent asbestos. But 'asbestos-containing construction material' — any MANUFACTURED construction material containing more than one-tenth of 1 percent asbestos by weight — is defined separately for the standard's asbestos-consultant subsection and again for its Report of Use and registration subsection, each time applicable to that subsection only.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Cal/OSHA's asbestos standard counts pre-1981 thermal system insulation and surfacing material as asbestos.
Thermal system insulation and surfacing material in buildings constructed no later than 1980 is presumed asbestos-containing material (PACM). For Cal/OSHA's asbestos standard, asbestos includes PACM. You may rebut a PACM designation only through the standard's own rebuttal provision.
On the job
This is the provision that makes the asbestos duties bite on a building nobody has tested: in a pre-1981 building the insulation and the sprayed ceiling are asbestos for the standard's purposes until somebody proves otherwise.
Exact wording
For Cal/OSHA's asbestos standard, 'asbestos' INCLUDES presumed asbestos-containing material (PACM), and PACM means thermal system insulation and surfacing material found in buildings constructed no later than 1980. The designation of a material as PACM may be rebutted, but only in compliance with the standard's own rebuttal provision.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
You must treat thermal system insulation and surfacing material as asbestos-containing until you determine otherwise.
Surfacing material counts whether it was sprayed or troweled on, and the duty covers material in buildings. The identification duty stands unless the employer or building owner determines, in compliance with the standard, that the material is not asbestos-containing. Asphalt and vinyl flooring installed no later than 1980 must also be considered asbestos-containing, unless the employer determines otherwise under the standard's flooring provision.
On the job
The duty runs the opposite way from most people's instinct. Testing is how you get OUT of the asbestos regime, not how you get into it.
Exact wording
Employers and building owners must IDENTIFY thermal system insulation and sprayed or troweled on surfacing materials in buildings AS asbestos-containing, unless they determine in compliance with the standard that the material is not asbestos-containing; and asphalt and vinyl flooring material installed no later than 1980 must also be considered asbestos-containing unless the employer determines otherwise under the standard's flooring provision.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
On covered flooring-removal work, assume the resilient flooring, mastic and backing contain asbestos.
Covered work is flooring work under the standard's flooring-removal provision, and you must assume resilient flooring, its mastic and backing contain asbestos before anyone samples them. Only an industrial hygienist, using recognized analytical techniques, may determine the material is asbestos-free.
On the job
Pulling up old sheet vinyl or tile with its mastic is one of the most common ways a general building contractor meets asbestos, and the assumption attaches before anyone has tested anything.
Exact wording
For flooring work covered by the standard's flooring-removal provision, resilient flooring material including its associated mastic and backing must be ASSUMED to be asbestos-containing unless an industrial hygienist determines that it is asbestos-free using recognized analytical techniques.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
On roofs, remove asbestos-containing roofing material intact whenever that is feasible.
Wet methods are required only for roofing material that is not intact, or that removal will render not intact — and not even then where wet methods are infeasible or would create safety hazards. Removing or repairing sections of intact roofing under 25 square feet needs neither wet methods nor HEPA vacuuming, as long as you use manual methods that keep the material intact and create no visible dust. Notwithstanding any other provision of the standard, this allowance stands. Count all removal and repair work done on the same roof on the same day toward the 25 square feet.
On the job
Intactness is the real gate here, not area: material removed intact needs no wet methods at any size, so the 25-square-foot proviso is an extra allowance for small intact work rather than the only way out. The same-day aggregation is the half that catches people on the proviso — splitting a 40-square-foot patch into two visits on one roof in one day does not bring it under the threshold.
Exact wording
On roofs, asbestos-containing roofing material must be removed in an intact state to the extent feasible, and WET METHODS are required only for roofing material that is not intact or that will be rendered not intact during removal — and even then not where wet methods are infeasible or would create safety hazards. Separately, notwithstanding any other provision of the standard, removal or repair of sections of intact roofing less than 25 square feet in area requires neither wet methods nor HEPA vacuuming, as long as manual methods that do not render the material nonintact are used and no visible dust is created; in determining whether a job involves less than 25 square feet, the employer must include all removal and repair work performed on the same roof on the same day.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Work on intact asbestos roof mastics and coatings has its own route to compliance.
Intact means the material is still whole, not crumbled or broken apart. This safe harbor overrides any other provision of the asbestos standard, and it covers installing, removing, repairing, or maintaining intact pipeline asphaltic wrap, or roof cements, mastics, coatings, or flashings whose asbestos fibers are encapsulated or coated by bituminous or resinous compounds. You must meet every provision of subsection (g)(11): a holding the class-specific training inspects before work begins, and again as needed during the job, and determines that the material is intact and will likely remain intact; every employee performing the work is trained under the (k)(9)(H) training program; no sanding, abrading, or grinding, and only manual methods that do not render the material non-intact; and no dropping or throwing removed material to the ground. Removed material is either carried or passed to the ground by hand, or lowered by covered, dust-tight chute, crane, or hoist, and it is removed from the roof as soon as practicable. If you miss any provision of subsection (g)(11), or the material does not remain intact during the job, the roofing provisions of subsection (g)(8) apply instead.
On the job
Patching intact roof mastic or flashing is the one asbestos job with a complete safe harbor — and it evaporates the moment the material is ground, sanded, or breaks apart.
Exact wording
Notwithstanding any other provision of the asbestos standard, an employer that complies with all provisions of subsection (g)(11) when installing, removing, repairing, or maintaining intact pipeline asphaltic wrap, or roof cements, mastics, coatings, or flashings containing asbestos fibers encapsulated or coated by bituminous or resinous compounds, is deemed to be in compliance with the section. The conditions include an inspection before work begins, and as needed during the job, by a competent person — one holding the class-specific training the standard's definition requires, as the vocabulary entry describes — who determines that the material is intact and will likely remain intact; training of all employees performing the work under the standard's (k)(9)(H) training program; no sanding, abrading, or grinding, using manual methods that do not render the material non-intact; and no dropping or throwing removed material to the ground — unless carried or passed to the ground by hand it is lowered by covered, dust-tight chute, crane, or hoist and removed from the roof as soon as practicable. If the employer does not comply with every provision of (g)(11), or the material does not remain intact during the job, the roofing provisions of subsection (g)(8) apply instead.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
You may engage an asbestos consultant only after that person shows proof of certification.
An asbestos consultant is whoever you contract with for professional health and safety services on 100 square feet or more of surface area of asbestos-containing construction material; the work includes building inspection, sample collection and clearance monitoring. You may not engage an asbestos consultant or a site surveillance technician unless that person provides proof of certification by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
On the job
Two separate rules that are easy to run together. The PACM rebuttal has its own evidentiary requirements — the test, evaluation and sample collection must meet the standard's analytical requirements and be done by an accredited inspector or a certified industrial hygienist, with flooring having its own industrial-hygienist route. SEPARATELY, engaging an uncertified asbestos consultant is a violation in its own right. Hiring the wrong person is a violation; it does not by itself make an otherwise-valid analytical determination incapable of rebutting the presumption.
Exact wording
Where professional health and safety services relating to asbestos-containing construction material comprising 100 square feet or more of surface area are contracted for, the person providing them is an 'asbestos consultant' — whose activities include building inspection, sample collection and clearance monitoring — and no employer may engage the services of an asbestos consultant or a site surveillance technician unless that person provides proof of certification by the Division.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Count all asbestos-containing construction material you handle at one worksite toward the registration threshold.
Measure surface area, and count only the material you handle during the course of the work. Material in noncontiguous locations at that worksite goes into one total. Exclude work under a routine and continuing maintenance and repair plan of existing fixtures or machinery where each component of the work involves less than 100 square feet.
On the job
The aggregation rule is what a contractor gets wrong: sixty square feet in one room and sixty in another at the same worksite is 120 square feet and registrable, not two jobs under the line.
Exact wording
The square footage that decides whether asbestos registration is required is computed as the surface area of asbestos-containing construction material that will be HANDLED during the course of the work being performed by the employer at a single worksite; where the material sits in NONCONTIGUOUS locations at a single worksite, the total square footage of all of it must be included in the computation — unless the work is performed as part of a routine and continuing maintenance and repair plan of existing fixtures or machinery where each component of the work involves less than 100 square feet.
Keep asbestos exposure monitoring records 30 years. Medical surveillance records run employment plus 30 years.
The asbestos standard sets two retention periods, both in accordance with the General Industry Safety Orders' records-access section. Keep an exposure monitoring record at least 30 years, while the medical surveillance record runs the duration of employment plus 30 years.
On the job
Thirty years outlives most contracting businesses, and the medical record is the longer of the two: employment plus thirty, not thirty. Both survive the job and have to be planned for rather than discovered at closeout.
Exact wording
Where the asbestos standard requires records, two different retention periods apply and they are not the same: an EXPOSURE MONITORING record must be maintained for at least thirty (30) years, while a MEDICAL SURVEILLANCE record must be maintained for the DURATION OF EMPLOYMENT PLUS thirty (30) years — both in accordance with the General Industry Safety Orders' records-access section.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
On asbestos work you use HEPA vacuums, wet methods, and leak-tight disposal at any exposure level.
You may skip wet methods only where you demonstrate they are infeasible — for example, because they would create electrical hazards or cause equipment malfunction. Otherwise use wet methods or wetting agents in all operations covered by the asbestos standard: handling, mixing, removal, cutting, application, and cleanup. Use HEPA-filtered vacuums to collect all debris and dust containing asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing material. Clean up promptly and dispose of contaminated waste and debris in leak-tight containers. Waste, scrap, debris, bags, containers, equipment, and contaminated clothing consigned for disposal go into sealed, labeled, impermeable bags or other closed, labeled, impermeable containers. Roofing operations follow their own separate provisions for all three controls and for disposal.
On the job
These do not switch on at an exposure level, so a clean air sample or a negative exposure assessment does not release the employer from any of them — which is the opposite of how a contractor reads a standard built around permissible exposure limits.
Exact wording
In ALL operations covered by the asbestos standard, REGARDLESS OF THE LEVELS OF EXPOSURE, the employer must use three engineering controls and work practices: vacuum cleaners equipped with HEPA filters to collect all debris and dust containing asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing material; wet methods or wetting agents to control exposures during asbestos handling, mixing, removal, cutting, application and cleanup, except where the employer DEMONSTRATES wet methods are infeasible — for example because they would create electrical hazards or cause equipment malfunction; and prompt clean-up and disposal of contaminated waste and debris in leak-tight containers. Roofing operations have their own separate provisions for all three. Asbestos waste, scrap, debris, bags, containers, equipment, and contaminated clothing consigned for disposal must be collected and disposed of in sealed, labeled, impermeable bags or other closed, labeled, impermeable containers — again with roofing operations following their own provisions.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
You must reduce asbestos exposure with engineering controls and work practices. Respirators only supplement them.
As the employer you must use local exhaust ventilation with HEPA dust collection, enclosure or isolation of dust-producing processes, and ventilation of the regulated area, bringing exposures down to the lowest levels attainable. Use respirators only where those controls cannot reduce exposure to or below the permissible exposure limits.
On the job
Putting the crew in respirators and calling the limit met is not compliance: respirators are a supplement to feasible controls, not a substitute for them.
Exact wording
To achieve compliance with the asbestos permissible exposure limits the employer must use engineering controls and work practices — local exhaust ventilation with HEPA dust collection, enclosure or isolation of dust-producing processes, ventilation of the regulated area — to reduce exposures to the lowest levels attainable, and may use respiratory protection only to SUPPLEMENT those controls where they are not sufficient to reduce exposure to or below the limits.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Never rip up resilient sheet flooring that is asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing.
Scrape residual adhesive or backing using wet methods only. Do not dry sweep. Chip mechanically only inside a negative pressure enclosure meeting the enclosure requirements in subsection (g)(5)(A). Remove tiles intact unless the employer demonstrates that intact removal is not possible.
On the job
This is the practical continuation of the flooring presumption. A remodeler told that sheet vinyl, its mastic and its backing are presumed asbestos-containing needs to know what he may not then do to them — and chipping stubborn mastic off a slab, the obvious next move, is prohibited outside a negative-pressure enclosure.
Exact wording
For flooring work on asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing material, rip-up of resilient sheet floor material is prohibited; all scraping of residual adhesive or backing must be performed using wet methods; dry sweeping is prohibited; mechanical chipping is prohibited unless performed in a negative pressure enclosure MEETING THE STANDARD'S OWN ENCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS in subsection (g)(5)(A); and tiles must be removed INTACT unless the employer demonstrates that intact removal is not possible.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
You may not sand vinyl or asphalt flooring unless the owner shows it has no asbestos.
The care-of-flooring rules cover all vinyl and asphalt flooring material, unless the building or facility owner demonstrates under the standard's flooring provision that the flooring does not contain asbestos. Where they apply, three limits run together: no sanding; strip finishes only with low abrasion pads, at speeds lower than 300 rpm, and with wet methods; and burnish or dry buff only where the finish is thick enough that the pad cannot contact the flooring material.
On the job
The flooring presumption governs care in place as well as removal — sanding an old vinyl floor to refinish it is prohibited outright.
Exact wording
All vinyl and asphalt flooring material must be maintained under the standard's care-of-flooring rules unless the building or facility owner demonstrates under the standard's flooring provision that the flooring does not contain asbestos: sanding of flooring material is prohibited; stripping of finishes must be conducted using low abrasion pads at speeds lower than 300 rpm and wet methods; and burnishing or dry buffing may be performed only on flooring that has sufficient finish that the pad cannot contact the flooring material.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
If you discover asbestos material, tell the owner and other employers within 24 hours.
Every employer who discovers asbestos-containing material or presumed asbestos-containing material must report it. Give the owner and other employers of employees working at the work site the presence, location, and quantity. The 24 hours run from the discovery.
On the job
This is the duty that arrives on an ordinary job going wrong — you open a wall, find what you did not expect, and a 24-hour clock starts running toward the owner and every other employer on site.
Exact wording
All employers who DISCOVER asbestos-containing material or presumed asbestos-containing material on a worksite must convey information concerning its presence, location and quantity to the owner and to other employers of employees working at the work site, WITHIN 24 HOURS of the discovery.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Inform the owner, your employees, and the employers in adjacent areas before asbestos work begins.
The duty applies whenever your employees will work in or adjacent to areas containing asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing material, and the employers in adjacent areas are those whose employees are working or about to work there. Before work begins, inform the building or facility owner, the employees who will perform the work, and those employers of the location and quantity of the material present and the precautions to be taken to ensure airborne asbestos is confined to the area. Within 10 days of completing that work, inform the owner and the employers of employees who will be working in the area of the current location and quantity of material remaining and any final monitoring results.
On the job
Both ends of the job carry a communication duty, and the closing one is the easier to miss: ten days after finishing, somebody still has to be told what is left behind.
Exact wording
Before work begins in or adjacent to areas containing asbestos-containing or presumed asbestos-containing material, the employer whose employees will perform it must inform the building or facility owner, the employees who will perform the work, and employers of employees working or about to work in adjacent areas, of the LOCATION and QUANTITY of the material present and the PRECAUTIONS to be taken to ensure airborne asbestos is confined to the area; and WITHIN 10 DAYS of completing that work must inform the owner and the employers of employees who will be working in the area of the current location and quantity of material remaining and any final monitoring results.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
The building owner must find and disclose the asbestos before work under the asbestos standard begins.
The owner's determination covers presence, location, and quantity, and it covers presumed asbestos-containing material as well as asbestos-containing material at the work site. The owner then notifies, in writing or by personal communication with the person or an authorized representative: prospective employers applying or bidding for the work whose employees can reasonably be expected to work in or adjacent to areas containing the material; the owner's own employees who will work in or adjacent to those areas; on multi-employer worksites, all employers of employees who will work within or adjacent to those areas; and tenants who will occupy areas containing the material.
On the job
A contractor that owns the building it is renovating wears both hats: the owner's duty to find and disclose the asbestos comes before any employer's duty to warn its own crew.
Exact wording
Before work subject to the asbestos standard begins, the building or facility owner must determine the presence, location, and quantity of asbestos-containing and presumed asbestos-containing material at the work site, and must notify — in writing or by personal communication with the person or their authorized representative — prospective employers applying or bidding for work whose employees can reasonably be expected to work in or adjacent to areas containing the material, the owner's own employees who will work in or adjacent to those areas, on multi-employer worksites all employers of employees who will work within or adjacent to them, and tenants who will occupy areas containing the material.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Do not cut, abrade, or break asbestos cement siding or transite panels on exterior walls.
You may cut, abrade, or break cementitious asbestos-containing siding, shingles, or transite panels only if you, the employer, demonstrate that methods less likely to release asbestos fibers cannot be used. On building exteriors other than roofs you must also spray each panel or shingle with amended water before removal; lower unwrapped or unbagged panels or shingles immediately to the ground by covered dust-tight chute, crane, or hoist, or place them in an impervious waste bag or wrap them in plastic sheeting and lower them no later than the end of the work shift; and cut nails with flat, sharp instruments. Different or modified engineering and work practice controls are allowed only under the standard's alternative-controls provision: data representing employee exposure during use of the method under closely resembling conditions, showing exposure will not exceed the permissible exposure limits under any anticipated circumstances, plus a competent person's written certification that the modified controls are adequate.
On the job
Transite siding comes off wet, whole, and down a chute — and the way out of those practices is exposure data plus a competent person's written certification, not a clean air sample on its own.
Exact wording
When removing cementitious asbestos-containing siding and shingles or transite panels on building exteriors other than roofs, the employer must ensure four work practices: cutting, abrading, or breaking the siding, shingles, or panels is PROHIBITED unless the employer can demonstrate that methods less likely to result in asbestos fiber release cannot be used; each panel or shingle is sprayed with amended water before removal; unwrapped or unbagged panels or shingles are immediately lowered to the ground by covered dust-tight chute, crane, or hoist, or are placed in an impervious waste bag or wrapped in plastic sheeting and lowered no later than the end of the work shift; and nails are cut with flat, sharp instruments. Instead of the listed Class II practices the employer may use different or modified engineering and work practice controls only by complying with the standard's alternative-controls provision — including demonstrating, by data representing employee exposure during use of the method under closely resembling conditions, that exposure will not exceed the PELs under any anticipated circumstances, and a competent person's written certification that the modified controls are adequate.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
As the general contractor you supervise the asbestos work. Hiring a specialist does not change that.
Every general contractor on a project that includes work covered by the asbestos standard is deemed to supervise that work, even though a general contractor is not qualified to serve as the competent person. So as supervisor of the entire project, you must ascertain whether the asbestos contractor is complying with the standard, and require that contractor to come into compliance when necessary.
On the job
Subcontracting the asbestos work does not subcontract the asbestos problem. This duty attaches to the GC by the fact of being the GC, and it survives hiring the most qualified specialist available.
Exact wording
ALL GENERAL CONTRACTORS on a construction project that includes work covered by the asbestos standard are DEEMED to exercise general supervisory authority over that work, even though the general contractor is not qualified to serve as the asbestos 'competent person'. As supervisor of the entire project, the general contractor must ascertain whether the asbestos contractor is in compliance with the standard, and must require that contractor to come into compliance when necessary.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Check the enclosure daily when your crew works next to another employer's regulated area.
A regulated area is the marked-off zone the other employer set up for the abatement, and the enclosure is the barrier holding fibers inside it. On a multi-employer worksite, you must take steps each day to confirm that enclosure is intact, or that the control method the primary asbestos contractor relies on is effective, so asbestos fibers do not migrate into the adjacent areas.
On the job
A daily duty on the employer whose crew is merely working nearby — not on the abatement contractor — which is the position a general building contractor's own trades are usually in.
Exact wording
All employers of employees working ADJACENT to a regulated area established by another employer on a multi-employer worksite must take steps ON A DAILY BASIS to ascertain the integrity of the enclosure, or the effectiveness of the control method the primary asbestos contractor is relying on, to assure that asbestos fibers do not migrate into the adjacent areas.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Give each affected employee the asbestos monitoring results in writing within five working days.
As the employer, you must notify each affected employee as soon as possible, but no later than five working days after receipt of the monitoring results. Where results exceed the permissible exposure limit or the excursion limit, your written notice must also describe the corrective action being taken.
On the job
A deadline and a duty to inform the worker, and one the CSLB's C-22 study guide itself uses as a sample examination question.
Exact wording
The employer must notify each affected employee of asbestos monitoring results as soon as possible but NO LATER THAN FIVE WORKING DAYS after receipt of the results; the notification must be in writing, and where the results show exposure above the permissible exposure limit or the excursion limit it must describe the corrective action being taken.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1529 ↗
Take away
26 rules · 15 minHazard communication
The Hazard Communication standard covers any hazardous chemical present where employees may be exposed.
Two conditions must both be met: you know the hazardous chemical is present in the workplace, and it is present in such a manner that employees may be exposed under normal conditions of use or in a foreseeable emergency. Quantity does not matter.
On the job
Coverage turns on possible exposure rather than on quantity or on whether the chemical is a product you sell, so ordinary jobsite materials are inside it.
Exact wording
The Hazard Communication standard applies to any hazardous chemical which is known to be present in the workplace in such a manner that employees may be exposed under normal conditions of use or in a foreseeable emergency.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Keep a written hazard communication program at the workplace and list every hazardous chemical.
A written hazard communication program describes at least how you will meet the labeling, safety data sheet, and employee training requirements. Keep it at the workplace. It must also list the hazardous chemicals known to be present in the workplace, and state the methods you will use to inform employees of the hazards of non-routine tasks and of chemicals in unlabeled pipes in their work areas.
On the job
Labels, safety data sheets and training are three separate duties, and the written program is what ties them into one system somebody can follow. The chemical list is the part contractors skip: without it there is no way to check that every product on the job has a sheet behind it.
Exact wording
Every employer must develop, implement, and maintain at the workplace a WRITTEN hazard communication program which at least describes how the labeling, safety data sheet and employee training requirements will be met, and which includes a list of the hazardous chemicals known to be present in the workplace and the methods the employer will use to inform employees of the hazards of non-routine tasks and of chemicals contained in unlabeled pipes in their work areas.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Your written program must also cover the other employers on a multi-employer site.
In a multi-employer workplace, state three methods in your written hazard communication program: how you will give the other employers on site access to safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals their employees may be exposed to; how you will inform those employers of any precautionary measures needed during normal operating conditions and in foreseeable emergencies; and how you will inform them of the labeling system in use.
On the job
This is the provision that reaches a general contractor hardest: the duty is not merely to protect your own crew, but to tell the other employers on the site what you brought and how it is labeled.
Exact wording
In a multi-employer workplace, the written hazard communication program must additionally state the methods the employer will use to provide other employers on site with access to safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals their employees may be exposed to, the methods used to inform those employers of any precautionary measures needed during normal operating conditions and in foreseeable emergencies, and the methods used to inform them of the labeling system in use.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
You must make the written hazard communication program available on request.
Four kinds of requester can ask for the written hazard communication program: your employees, their designated representatives, the Chief of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
On the job
A program nobody can obtain is not a program. Note who can ask — not only employees, but their designated representatives and two named regulators. A contractor who keeps the only copy in a truck has a compliance problem the moment any of them asks.
Exact wording
The written hazard communication program must be made available, on request, to employees, their designated representatives, the Chief of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Keep a safety data sheet in the workplace for every hazardous chemical you use.
You must also maintain copies that employees can readily access during each work shift, in the work areas where they are working. Readily accessible means reachable at that moment, not filed at a main office across town.
On the job
The safety data sheet matters at the moment of exposure, not at the end of the job. 'Readily accessible during each work shift when they are in their work areas' is the operative phrase: a binder at the main office is not accessible to a crew across town at 2pm.
Exact wording
An employer must have a safety data sheet in the workplace for each hazardous chemical it uses, and must maintain copies that are readily accessible to employees during each work shift when they are in their work areas.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
You may keep safety data sheets at one central location when crews travel between workplaces.
Safety data sheets kept centrally must sit at the primary workplace facility, and the travel must occur during a work shift. You may do this only if you ensure employees can immediately obtain the required information in an emergency.
On the job
This is the provision that makes a roving crew lawful — but the condition is immediate access in an emergency, not access when the truck gets back to the yard.
Exact wording
Where employees must travel between workplaces during a work shift, safety data sheets may be kept at a central location at the primary workplace facility, provided the employer can ensure that employees can immediately obtain the required information in an emergency.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Train employees on hazardous chemicals before the first assignment starts. A new hazard restarts the duty.
The training and information must be effective, and must cover the hazardous chemicals in each employee's work area. Two triggers apply: the time of an employee's initial assignment, and any time a new chemical hazard is introduced into that work area.
On the job
Training is owed before the first assignment rather than within some period after hire, and a new hazard restarts the duty for everyone it reaches.
Exact wording
Employers must provide employees with effective information and training on hazardous chemicals in their work area at the time of their initial assignment, and whenever a new chemical hazard is introduced into their work area.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Do not remove or intentionally deface the label on an incoming container of hazardous chemicals.
As the employer, you are responsible for labels on incoming containers of hazardous chemicals, and intentionally defacing one counts as removal. You may take a label off only if you mark the container immediately with the required information.
On the job
The label is the warning that travels with the container. Defacing it strands the contents without identification, and the exception is written narrowly — the replacement marking has to be immediate, not scheduled for when someone gets to it.
Exact wording
Employers must not remove or intentionally deface existing labels on incoming containers of hazardous chemicals unless the container is immediately marked with the required information.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
You must label, tag, or mark each container of hazardous chemicals in the workplace.
Two containers are exempt: a stationary process container identified by alternative written materials, and a portable container filled from a labeled container for the immediate use of the employee who makes the transfer. On every other container, put either the information a shipped-container label must carry under subsections (f)(1)(A) through (E), or a product identifier plus words, pictures, symbols, or a combination of them that gives at least general information about the chemicals' hazards and that, together with the other information your hazard communication program keeps immediately available to employees, gives them the specific physical and health hazard information.
On the job
The portable-container exemption is an exception to this rule; every other container on the site — the five-gallon pail of adhesive, the drum of solvent — carries either the full shipped label or an identifier plus a hazard warning.
Exact wording
Except for stationary process containers identified by alternative written materials, and for portable containers filled from a labeled container for the immediate use of the employee who makes the transfer, the employer must ensure that each container of hazardous chemicals in the workplace is labeled, tagged, or marked with either the information required on shipped-container labels under subsections (f)(1)(A) through (E), or a product identifier and words, pictures, symbols, or a combination of them that gives at least general information about the chemicals' hazards and that, in conjunction with the other information immediately available to employees under the hazard communication program, gives them the specific physical and health hazard information.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
You may use a sign or batch ticket instead of labeling a stationary process container.
A stationary process container stays in one place, like a tank or mixer. Your written material may be a sign, placard, process sheet, batch ticket, operating procedure, or similar writing. It must identify the containers it covers, carry the information a label must carry, and be readily accessible to employees in their work area throughout each work shift. In construction, the written material must identify and accompany the containers it covers.
On the job
A tank or mixer that stays put can be covered by a sign, placard or batch ticket instead of a label, and on a construction site that written material must travel with the containers it covers.
Exact wording
Under the hazard communication standard, the employer may use signs, placards, process sheets, batch tickets, operating procedures, or similar written materials instead of affixing labels to individual stationary process containers, so long as the alternative identifies the containers it applies to and conveys the information a label must carry, and the written materials are readily accessible to employees in their work area throughout each work shift; in construction, the employer may use such written materials instead of labels on individual containers so long as the alternative identifies and accompanies the containers it applies to.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
You do not label pipes, or pesticides and consumer products that federal law already labels.
Pipes and piping systems are not containers, so your written hazard communication program covers the chemicals in unlabeled pipes instead. You do not have to label a pesticide as defined in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act while it is subject to that Act's labeling requirements and EPA's labeling regulations. You do not have to label a consumer product or hazardous substance as defined in the Consumer Product Safety Act and Federal Hazardous Substances Act while it is subject to a consumer product safety standard or labeling requirement of those Acts or the Consumer Product Safety Commission's regulations. Safety data sheets, training, and the rest of the standard still apply to those chemicals.
On the job
An EPA-labeled termiticide, a CPSC-labeled home-center adhesive, and process piping need no Cal/OSHA workplace label, but the rest of the standard still reaches them.
Exact wording
For the hazard communication standard, pipes and piping systems are not containers, so the container-labeling duty does not reach them; the hazards of chemicals in unlabeled pipes are addressed through the written program instead. The section does not require labeling of a pesticide as defined in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act when it is subject to that Act's labeling requirements and EPA's labeling regulations, nor of a consumer product or hazardous substance as defined in the Consumer Product Safety Act and Federal Hazardous Substances Act when it is subject to a consumer product safety standard or labeling requirement of those Acts or the Consumer Product Safety Commission's regulations — the rest of the standard still applies to those chemicals.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
The hazard communication standard drops away entirely for hazardous waste under EPA rules.
It also drops away for a chemical you use in compliance with regulations of the Director of the Department of Pesticide Regulation issued under Food and Agricultural Code section 12981. The waste exclusion covers hazardous waste as defined by the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and only while it is subject to EPA regulations under that Act. Both exclusions are total: no labeling, no safety data sheets, no training. An EPA-labeled pesticide container is different, because that relief covers labeling only.
On the job
A drummed solvent waste stream is outside the standard entirely; its labeling runs under the hazardous-waste regime.
Exact wording
The hazard communication standard does not apply at all to hazardous waste as defined by the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, when it is subject to EPA regulations under that Act, nor to the use of a chemical in compliance with regulations of the Director of the Department of Pesticide Regulation issued under Food and Agricultural Code section 12981 — a total exclusion, distinct from the labeling-only relief for an EPA-labeled pesticide container.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
You can leave a portable container unlabeled only if you use it yourself that shift.
The exemption applies only where the portable container is filled from a labeled container. Immediate use means the chemical stays under the control of the employee who made the transfer and is used only by that employee within the work shift in which it is transferred.
On the job
The exemption is narrower than it sounds: hand the container to someone else, or leave it for the next shift, and the label is required.
Exact wording
No label is required on a portable container into which a hazardous chemical is transferred from a labeled container when it is intended only for the immediate use of the employee who performs the transfer, meaning the chemical remains under the control of and is used only by that employee within the work shift in which it is transferred.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
The Hazard Communication standard still covers wood you may later saw or cut.
The Hazard Communication standard does not apply to wood or wood products, including lumber that will not be processed, when the only hazard to employees is flammability or combustibility. It still applies to non-excluded hazardous chemicals used in conjunction with the wood or known to be present in it as impurities, and to wood that may later be sawed or cut so as to generate dust.
On the job
Almost no construction lumber stays inside this exclusion: treated wood carries chemicals as impurities, and wood that will be cut generates dust. It is written as an exclusion and behaves as a narrow one.
Exact wording
The Hazard Communication standard does not apply to wood or wood products, including lumber that will not be processed, where the only hazard they pose to employees is the potential for flammability or combustibility — but that exclusion does NOT reach non-excluded hazardous chemicals used in conjunction with wood or known to be present in it as impurities, and does NOT reach wood which may subsequently be sawed or cut so as to generate dust.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
The Hazard Communication standard does not cover consumer products used the way consumers use them.
A consumer product is packaged for distribution to, and use by, the general public. Such a product falls outside the Hazard Communication standard only if your employees' exposure to it is not significantly greater than the consumer exposure during its principal consumer use.
On the job
The proviso is the whole exclusion: an off-the-shelf product used all day by a crew is not being used the way a consumer uses it, and the exclusion closes.
Exact wording
The Hazard Communication standard does not apply to consumer products packaged for distribution to, and use by, the general public, provided that employee exposure to the product is not significantly greater than the consumer exposure occurring during the principal consumer use of the product.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
If employees only handle sealed containers, you still owe labels, safety data sheets, and spill training.
Sealed means your employees handle the chemicals without opening the containers under normal conditions of use. First, make sure nobody removes or defaces the labels on incoming containers. Second, maintain the safety data sheets that come with incoming shipments, obtain a sheet for any sealed container received without one if an employee requests it, and keep the sheets readily accessible to employees during each work shift in their work areas. Third, give employees information and training under the standard's training requirements, except for the location and availability of the written hazard communication program, and only to the extent needed to protect them in the event of a spill or leak.
On the job
This is the posture of a contractor storing a supplier's or a sub's product without opening it — the standard does not switch off, it narrows to three duties.
Exact wording
Where employees only handle chemicals in sealed containers which are not opened under normal conditions of use, three duties of the Hazard Communication standard still apply: the employer must ensure labels on incoming containers are not removed or defaced; must maintain any safety data sheets received with incoming shipments, obtain one for a sealed container received without it if an employee requests it, and ensure the sheets are readily accessible to employees during each work shift in their work areas; and must provide employees with information and training in accordance with the training subsection EXCEPT for the location and availability of the written hazard communication program, and only to the extent necessary to protect them in the event of a spill or leak.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
You have 7 working days to write the manufacturer when a safety data sheet is missing.
The manufacturer or importer may fail to provide the sheet or any required item of information in one. Your written inquiry must ask that the complete safety data sheet be sent, and the 7 working days run from when you note the missing information, whether from an employee request or while trying to obtain the sheet. Then notify the requester in writing of the date you made the inquiry, whom you asked, and the response, if any. Giving the requester a copy of the inquiry and a copy of the response satisfies that notice.
On the job
The duty when a sheet is missing is an affirmative, dated, written step rather than a note to chase it — and it is triggered by noticing, not by an employee complaining.
Exact wording
If a safety data sheet, or any required item of information in one, is not provided by the manufacturer or importer, the employer must within 7 WORKING DAYS of noting the missing information — whether from an employee request or while attempting to obtain the sheet — make WRITTEN inquiry to the manufacturer or importer responsible for it, asking that the complete safety data sheet be sent; and must notify the requester in writing of the date the inquiry was made, to whom it was made, and the response, if any, received; giving the requester a copy of the inquiry and a copy of the response satisfies that notice.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
One written inquiry counts for 12 months on Act coverage and 6 months on sheet updates.
For a missing safety data sheet, you owe no additional written inquiry where you already sent one in the preceding 12 months asking whether the chemical or product is subject to the Act, or within the last 6 months requesting new, revised or later information on that chemical's safety data sheet. Either inquiry alone is enough.
On the job
Two different lookbacks for two different questions, and it is worth keeping them apart. Twelve months covers asking whether the product is even subject to the Act. Six months covers asking for new or revised sheet information. The relief exists because a contractor should not have to re-ask the same supplier every time a sheet is missing — but the inquiry has to have been in WRITING to count.
Exact wording
The employer need not make an additional written inquiry for a missing safety data sheet if it has already made written inquiry in the preceding 12 months as to whether the chemical or product is subject to the Act, or has made written inquiry within the last 6 months requesting new, revised or later information on that chemical's safety data sheet.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Give employees a new or revised safety data sheet within 30 days of receipt.
The 30-day limit applies only if the new or revised sheet shows significantly increased risks to employee health, or measures necessary to protect it, compared with the previous sheet. Provide employees the information on a timely basis, capped at 30 days after receipt.
On the job
The clock runs from RECEIPT rather than from the next toolbox talk, and it is conditioned on the new information being materially worse or requiring new protection — an unchanged revision does not start it.
Exact wording
Whenever the employer receives a new or revised safety data sheet, that information must be provided to employees on a timely basis NOT TO EXCEED 30 DAYS after receipt, if the new information indicates significantly increased risks to employee health, or measures necessary to protect it, compared with the sheet previously provided.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
The Hazard Communication standard does not cover . Cutting or grinding one ends that exclusion.
An article is a manufactured item that meets all three tests: it is formed to a specific shape or design during manufacture; its end use function depends in whole or in part on that shape or design during end use; and it does not release a hazardous chemical or otherwise cause exposure to one under normal conditions of use or in a reasonably foreseeable emergency resulting from workplace operations. Hazardous chemicals used in making or using an article stay covered unless some other exclusion applies.
On the job
The third condition is the one construction work defeats. A manufactured component sitting in place is an article; the same component once it is cut, ground, welded, heated or sanded is releasing something, and the exclusion closes at that moment rather than at the loading dock.
Exact wording
The Hazard Communication standard does not apply to articles, and an 'article' is a manufactured item that satisfies all three of the following: it is formed to a specific shape or design during manufacture; its end use function depends in whole or in part on that shape or design during end use; AND it does not release, or otherwise result in exposure to, a hazardous chemical under normal conditions of use or in a reasonably foreseeable emergency resulting from workplace operations. Hazardous chemicals used in the manufacture or use of an article remain covered unless otherwise excluded.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Hazardous waste regulated by EPA falls outside the Hazard Communication standard.
Hazardous waste means waste as defined by the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976. No part of the Hazard Communication standard applies to that waste while it is subject to regulations issued under that Act by the Environmental Protection Agency.
On the job
RCRA-regulated hazardous waste is carved out of the hazard communication rules altogether because the EPA's waste regime governs it — a different exclusion from the consumer-product and article carve-outs, which turn on how the material is used.
Exact wording
The Hazard Communication standard does not apply to hazardous waste as defined by the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, when it is subject to regulations issued under that Act by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
If you employ fewer than ten employees, Proposition 65 does not apply.
You must comply with Proposition 65 — the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 — if you are an employer who is a person doing business under that Act. Three classes are not subject to it: an employer employing fewer than ten employees; any city, county, district, state or federal department or agency; and any entity in its operation of a public water system.
On the job
The under-ten exemption reaches a large share of licensed contractors, so the first Proposition 65 question is not what to warn about — it is whether the Act applies to the business at all.
Exact wording
An employer that is a person doing business within the meaning of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 — Proposition 65 — must comply with that Act, but three classes of employer are NOT subject to it: an employer employing FEWER THAN TEN EMPLOYEES; any city, county, district, state or federal department or agency; and any entity in its operation of a public water system.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
If hazard communication covers the chemical, you satisfy Proposition 65 by complying with it.
Proposition 65 is the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. If you are an employer subject to that Act and you would expose an employee to a hazardous substance that requires a Proposition 65 warning and also falls within the Hazard Communication standard's scope, complying with the Hazard Communication requirements is deemed compliance with the Act.
On the job
This is the safe harbor and it is the reassuring half of an otherwise alarming regime: for chemicals already inside hazard communication, doing that job properly is the Proposition 65 answer too.
Exact wording
Where an employer subject to Proposition 65 would expose an employee to a hazardous substance that ALSO falls within the scope of the Hazard Communication standard and requires a Proposition 65 warning, complying with the Hazard Communication requirements is DEEMED compliance with the Act.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
For a Prop 65 substance outside hazard communication, warn employees or follow the hazard communication rules.
If you are subject to Proposition 65 and would knowingly and intentionally expose an employee to a hazardous substance that the Act requires a warning for, but that hazard communication does not otherwise reach, you must do one of two things. Warn employees under the Proposition 65 warning regulation, or comply with hazard communication subsections (d) through (k).
On the job
The choice matters practically: an employer already running hazard communication properly can extend it to the listed substance instead of building a separate warning program.
Exact wording
Where an employer subject to Proposition 65 would KNOWINGLY AND INTENTIONALLY expose an employee to a hazardous substance that does NOT otherwise fall within the scope of the Hazard Communication standard but that requires a warning under the Act, the employer must do EITHER of two things: provide a warning to employees in compliance with the Proposition 65 warning regulation, OR comply with the Hazard Communication requirements in subsections (d) through (k).
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
You need not warn under Proposition 65 for an exposure less than twelve months after listing.
The date of the exposure is what counts, measured from the date the chemical was listed; the twelve-month exemption covers a Proposition 65 warning the Hazard Communication standard would otherwise require. Two other exposures are exempt as well: one for which federal law governs the warning in a way that preempts state authority, and one for which the responsible employer shows, on evidence of scientific validity comparable to the listing's, no significant risk assuming lifetime exposure at that level for a chemical listed as causing cancer, and no observable effect at 1,000 times that level for a chemical listed as causing reproductive toxicity.
On the job
The twelve-month grace after listing is the one a contractor is most likely to meet without knowing it, because a newly listed chemical carries no warning duty for its first year.
Exact wording
A Proposition 65 warning otherwise required by the Hazard Communication standard does not apply to an exposure for which federal law governs warning in a manner that preempts state authority; to an exposure taking place less than twelve months after the chemical was listed; or to an exposure for which the responsible employer can show, on evidence of comparable scientific validity to the listing's, that it poses no significant risk assuming lifetime exposure at that level for a chemical listed as causing cancer, and that it will have no observable effect at one thousand times that level for a chemical listed as causing reproductive toxicity.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Once a missing safety data sheet arrives, tell the requester within 15 days.
The 15 days run from receipt: either tell the employee who asked that the sheet is available, or hand over a copy. If the manufacturer, producer or seller never answers your written inquiry, send the Director a copy of that inquiry after 25 working days.
On the job
Without these the procedure has a start and no finish: the first clock only obliges you to ask, and these are what oblige you to close the loop with the employee and to escalate to the state when nobody answers.
Exact wording
The missing safety data sheet procedure has two further deadlines after the initial written inquiry: once the employer receives the safety data sheet, it must notify the requester of its availability or provide a copy WITHIN 15 DAYS of receipt; and if the manufacturer, producer or seller has not responded, the employer must send the Director a copy of its written inquiry AFTER 25 WORKING DAYS.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
Take away
23 rules · 14 minLead
Keep every employee's lead exposure at or below 10 micrograms per cubic meter.
The 10-microgram limit is an eight-hour time-weighted average, and you must ensure no employee exceeds it. Until January 1, 2030, employees conducting abrasive blasting may be exposed up to 25 micrograms per cubic meter as an eight-hour time-weighted average.
On the job
California's lead limit is far below the federal one, and the abrasive-blasting figure is a temporary allowance with an expiry date rather than a permanent higher limit.
Exact wording
The employer must ensure that no employee is exposed to an airborne concentration of lead greater than 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air calculated as an eight-hour time-weighted average; until January 1, 2030, no employee conducting abrasive blasting shall be exposed to an airborne concentration of lead greater than 25 micrograms per cubic meter of air as an eight-hour time-weighted average.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
The lead action level is 2 micrograms per cubic meter measured without regard to respirators.
The action level for lead is employee exposure to airborne lead, calculated as an eight-hour time-weighted average. You measure it without regard to the use of respirators, so respirators cannot bring a worker below 2 micrograms per cubic meter.
On the job
The words 'without regard to the use of respirators' are what stop an employer reasoning that protected workers are below the line — the action level is measured on the air, not on the worker.
Exact wording
For the lead standard, the 'action level' means employee exposure, WITHOUT REGARD TO THE USE OF RESPIRATORS, to an airborne concentration of lead of 2 micrograms per cubic meter of air calculated as an eight-hour time-weighted average.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Lead trigger tasks carry a presumed exposure level until the assessment. Protect employees at that level.
Trigger tasks are the tasks named on the lead standard's trigger-task lists, and the presumption holds until you complete the exposure assessment. A Level 1 task presumes exposure above the permissible exposure limit but no more than 10 times the PEL; a Level 2 task, above 10 times the PEL but no more than 50 times; a Level 3 task, above 50 times the PEL. Until the assessment is done you must also implement the interim protection the standard prescribes.
On the job
A trigger task puts you under duties from day one, not just into a category. Reading the presumption as a classification and waiting for the assessment before protecting anyone is the failure this provision exists to prevent.
Exact wording
Under the lead standard a task on the regulation's trigger-task lists is PRESUMED, until an exposure assessment is completed, to produce a given level of exposure: a Level 1 trigger task is presumed to result in employee exposure above the permissible exposure limit but not greater than 10 times the PEL; a Level 2 trigger task is presumed to result in exposure above 10 times the PEL but not greater than 50 times; and a Level 3 trigger task is presumed to result in exposure above 50 times the PEL. The presumption is not merely a label: until the assessment is done the employer must treat the employee as exposed at that level AND implement the interim protection the standard prescribes.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You must make an initial determination whether any employee may reach the lead action level.
The initial-determination duty rests on every employer whose workplace or operation the lead standard covers, and no earlier measurement has to exist first. Monitor employee exposures, and use those results to decide whether any employee may be exposed at or above the action level. Weigh the results together with any relevant information, observations or calculations indicating exposure, any previous measurements of airborne lead, and any employee complaints of symptoms attributable to lead. You may instead rely on the standard's route for earlier airborne-lead measurements or on objective data. Objective data must show that a particular lead-containing product or material, or a specific process, operation or activity involving lead, cannot release dust or fumes at or above the action level under any expected conditions of use. Data from an industry-wide survey count only if obtained under workplace conditions closely resembling your current processes, materials, control methods, work practices and environmental conditions. Keep the record of objective data you rely on for at least 30 years.
On the job
This is what the lead action level actually triggers first, and the duty attaches to the employer rather than to a reading: you do not wait until someone suspects 2 µg/m³ before you owe anything.
Exact wording
Each employer who has a workplace or operation covered by the lead standard must INITIALLY DETERMINE whether any employee may be exposed to lead at or above the action level. That duty rests on every covered employer and is not itself conditioned on a prior measurement; the employer must monitor employee exposures and base the initial determination on those monitoring results together with any relevant information, observations or calculations indicating exposure, any previous measurements of airborne lead, and any employee complaints of symptoms attributable to lead — unless the standard's earlier-data or objective-data routes apply instead. Objective data for this purpose are information demonstrating that a particular lead-containing product or material, or a specific process, operation, or activity involving lead, cannot release dust or fumes at or above the action level UNDER ANY EXPECTED CONDITIONS OF USE; data from an industry-wide survey must have been obtained under workplace conditions closely resembling the employer's current processes, materials, control methods, work practices, and environmental conditions; and the record of the objective data relied on is kept for at least 30 years.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You may stop monitoring lead when your initial determination shows exposure below the action level.
The initial determination is the first monitoring you do to see whether employees may be exposed to lead at or above the action level. You must monitor again whenever a change of equipment, process, control or personnel, or a new task, may result in more employees exposed at or above the action level, or in employees already there being exposed above the PEL.
On the job
A clean assessment is not one-and-done, but nor does every change restart it: the trigger is a change that MAY RESULT IN exposure crossing the line. Swapping to a dustier tool or adding crew to a lead task is the case to watch.
Exact wording
If the initial determination reveals employee exposure BELOW the action level, further exposure determination need not be repeated — but whenever there has been a change of equipment, process, control or personnel, or a new task has been initiated, THAT MAY RESULT IN additional employees being exposed at or above the action level (or in employees already at or above it being exposed above the PEL), the employer must conduct additional monitoring.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You must notify each employee in writing of the lead exposure assessment results.
You must deliver that written notice within 5 working days after the exposure assessment is complete. It must state the results that represent each employee's own exposure. Whenever those results show exposure at or above the permissible exposure limit, without regard to respirators, the notice must also state that the exposure was at or above the limit and describe the corrective action taken or to be taken to reduce exposure below it.
On the job
The lead twin of the asbestos notification rule: the same five working days and the same writing requirement, but the clock runs from completion of the assessment, and an over-the-limit result must come with the fix, not just the number.
Exact wording
Under the lead standard, within 5 working days after completion of the exposure assessment the employer must notify each employee in writing of the results that represent that employee's exposure; whenever the results show the representative employee exposure, without regard to respirators, at or above the permissible exposure limit, the written notice must also state that the employee's exposure was at or above that level and describe the corrective action taken or to be taken to reduce exposure below it.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Cap dry abrasive blasting at 5 hours a day. In 2030 that becomes 2 hours.
Dry abrasive blasting is a listed lead trigger task. Until the exposure assessment is completed, you must not let any employee blast more than 5 hours a day, or more than 2 hours a day after January 1, 2030.
On the job
Two different things happen on January 1 2030 and confusing them is expensive: the temporary 25 µg/m³ abrasive-blasting exposure allowance expires, AND the daily blasting time cap tightens from five hours to two.
Exact wording
Among the protections that attach to a listed lead trigger task until an exposure assessment is completed, the employer must limit the maximum amount of time an employee conducts DRY ABRASIVE BLASTING to 5 hours per day — and after January 1, 2030, to 2 hours per day.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You may shovel, brush, or sweep lead dust wet or dry only after vacuuming fails.
Under the lead standard, you must be able to demonstrate that vacuuming or another equally effective method was tried and found not effective. So wherever possible, clean floors and other surfaces where lead accumulates by vacuuming or other methods that minimize lead becoming airborne.
On the job
The lead ban is broader than the asbestos one — it reaches WET sweeping and brushing too — and it is conditioned on having tried vacuuming first rather than on any exposure level.
Exact wording
Under the lead standard, shoveling, dry OR WET sweeping, and brushing must not be used unless the employer can demonstrate that vacuuming or other equally effective methods have been tried and found not to be effective; floors and other surfaces where lead accumulates must be cleaned, wherever possible, by vacuuming or by other methods that minimize the likelihood of lead becoming airborne.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You may not use objective data to assess exposure on a listed lead trigger task.
Objective data are information showing that a product, material, process, operation or activity involving lead cannot release lead at or above the action level. Where you rely on objective data, you must keep the record for at least 30 years.
On the job
The Brief teaches the objective-data route as an alternative to monitoring and teaches the trigger-task presumption as its hardest rule. This is where the two meet: objective data cannot be used to escape a listed trigger task, so the presumption stands until real monitoring displaces it.
Exact wording
Objective data — information demonstrating that a product, material, process, operation or activity involving lead cannot release lead at or above the action level — may NOT be used for exposure assessment in connection with the standard's listed trigger tasks; where objective data are relied upon, the employer must maintain the record of that data for at least 30 years.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Send Cal/OSHA written notice before any lead trigger-task work. It must arrive 24 hours ahead.
As the employer, you owe written notification to the nearest Cal/OSHA District Office whenever planned work includes any task on the lead standard's trigger-task lists — the tasks the standard lists as triggering lead protections. Send it by letter, fax, email, or a telephone call followed by written notification within 24 hours of the call. The District Office must receive the information at least 24 hours before the work commences. If unforeseen lead work must start urgently within 24 hours, telephone at any time before commencement, then send written notification within 24 hours of the call.
On the job
This is the lead analogue of asbestos registration and it is easy to miss because it is a NOTIFICATION rather than a permit or a registration — no one issues you anything, but starting without it is a violation.
Exact wording
The employer must give WRITTEN pre-job notification to the nearest Cal/OSHA District Office when work is planned that includes any of the lead standard's listed trigger tasks, and that information must be RECEIVED at least 24 HOURS BEFORE the work commences — by letter, fax, email, or a telephone call followed by written notification sent within 24 hours of the call. Where unforeseen lead-work must start urgently within 24 hours, telephone notice at any time before commencement, followed by written notification within 24 hours of the call, satisfies the requirement.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Disturbing under 100 square or linear feet of lead material needs no pre-job notice.
Pre-job notification is the notice the employer sends Cal/OSHA before starting the lead standard's listed trigger tasks. Any one of these three alone removes the duty: you disturb less than 100 square feet or 100 linear feet of lead-containing material; the only listed task performed is torch cutting or welding not exceeding one hour in any shift; or the material disturbed is less than 0.5 percent lead, 5,000 parts per million by weight, or 1.0 milligram per square centimeter.
On the job
THREE independent escapes — area, torch-cutting or welding duration, and lead content — and any one of them alone removes the duty, so the analysis is short but has to actually be done.
Exact wording
Lead pre-job notification is NOT required if the amount of lead-containing material to be disturbed is less than 100 square feet or 100 linear feet, or if the only listed task performed is torch cutting or welding not exceeding one hour in any shift; and it is not required if the percentage of lead in the material disturbed is less than 0.5 percent, 5,000 parts per million by weight, or 1.0 milligram per square centimeter.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Set up a regulated area wherever lead exposure is above the permissible exposure limit.
A regulated area is a work area you mark off and control. Judge lead exposure as if no employee wore a respirator: respirators cannot bring you back under the limit. You may skip them only if you can demonstrate regulated areas are not feasible.
On the job
Two things nothing can measure away: the exposure is judged without crediting respirators, and the only escape is a demonstration of infeasibility rather than a reading.
Exact wording
The employer must establish REGULATED AREAS for work areas where employees are exposed to lead above the permissible exposure limit — measured WITHOUT REGARD TO THE USE OF RESPIRATORS — unless the employer can demonstrate that regulated areas are not feasible.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Use compressed air to remove lead only with a ventilation system that captures the dust.
The ventilation system must be designed to capture the airborne dust the compressed air creates, and the two run together. That holds for lead on any surface: no capture ventilation, no compressed air.
On the job
The same flat prohibition the asbestos standard carries, and it is the habit most likely to survive from ordinary finish-out work.
Exact wording
Compressed air must not be used to remove lead from any surface unless it is used together with a ventilation system designed to capture the airborne dust the compressed air creates.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You must make initial blood lead testing available before the assignment begins.
Initial blood lead testing is owed where exposure to lead is, or is reasonably expected to be, at or above the action level. You also must make that testing available as interim protection before an employee performs a listed trigger task, unless a negative initial determination has been made.
On the job
Prior to assignment, not within some window after it, so the sequencing has to be planned into the job. Note the two independent routes: ordinary above-action-level work, and interim protection for a listed trigger task before anyone has measured anything.
Exact wording
The employer must make INITIAL BLOOD LEAD TESTING available prior to assignment to work where exposure to lead is, or is reasonably expected to be, at or above the action level — and separately, as interim protection, before an employee performs a listed trigger task unless a negative initial determination has been made.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Monitor lead every 12 months when exposure sits between the action level and 30 micrograms.
The trigger is an initial or subsequent determination showing lead exposure at or above the action level but below 30 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour TWA. Monitor at least every 12 months. You may stop only after at least two consecutive measurements, taken at least 7 days apart, fall below the action level.
On the job
Two numbers do different jobs here. Twelve months is how often you monitor while exposure sits in that band; two measurements seven days apart is how you EARN THE RIGHT TO STOP. Knowing only the stopping rule leaves you without a schedule.
Exact wording
Where an initial or subsequent determination reveals lead exposure at or above the action level but below 30 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour TWA, the employer must monitor AT LEAST EVERY 12 MONTHS. Monitoring continues at the required frequency until at least TWO CONSECUTIVE measurements, taken at least SEVEN DAYS APART, are below the action level, at which point monitoring may be discontinued.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
If you rotate workers to lower lead exposure, you must keep a written rotation schedule.
Administrative controls are a permitted way to reduce employees' time-weighted-average lead exposure. If you use them for that purpose, you must establish and implement a written job rotation schedule. It must include each affected employee's name and another unique identifier, the duration and exposure levels at each job or work station where the employee is located, and any other information useful in assessing the reliability of the administrative controls.
On the job
Lead departs from the other two standards here: rotation is a permitted control rather than a prohibited one, and what the standard regulates is the documentation that lets anyone check whether it works.
Exact wording
Under the lead standard, if administrative controls are used as a means of reducing employees' time-weighted-average exposure to lead, the employer must establish and implement a WRITTEN JOB ROTATION SCHEDULE that includes the name and another unique identifier of each affected employee, the duration and exposure levels at each job or work station where the employee is located, and any other information useful in assessing the reliability of the administrative controls.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You must ensure certification for lead-related work in residential or public buildings.
The certification duty covers every employee and supervisor engaged in lead-related construction work in a residential or public building who has been shown to be exposed at or above 50 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour time-weighted average. You must see that each one meets the standard's training requirements, is trained by a provider accredited by the California Department of Public Health, and is certified by that department.
On the job
A certification gate that runs through a different agency entirely — CDPH rather than Cal/OSHA or CSLB — and it is keyed to a 50 µg/m³ exposure figure.
Exact wording
The employer must ensure that all employees and supervisors engaged in lead-related construction work in RESIDENTIAL OR PUBLIC BUILDINGS, who have been shown to be exposed to lead at or above 50 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour time-weighted average, meet the standard's training requirements, are trained by a provider ACCREDITED BY THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH, and are certified by that department.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You must train every employee exposed to lead at or above the action level.
The lead standard's training duty stands apart from the residential and public building certification rule: it applies on any day lead exposure reaches the action level. You must also provide training, and ensure participation, for employees whose lead exposure may cause skin or eye irritation and, as interim protection, for employees who perform trigger tasks. You must train every employee occupationally exposed to lead on the housekeeping and hygiene requirements, before initial job assignment and at least annually after that.
On the job
A painter sanding old paint in a commercial building at a few micrograms per cubic meter is nowhere near the 50 µg/m³ certification threshold and still owes a full training program, because the training trigger is the action level, not the certification figure.
Exact wording
Separately from the residential-and-public-building certification gate, the lead standard requires the employer to provide a training program, and ensure participation, for employees exposed to lead at or above the action level on any day, for employees exposed to lead that may cause skin or eye irritation, and — as interim protection — for employees who perform trigger tasks; and for all employees occupationally exposed to lead it must provide training on the housekeeping and hygiene requirements, before initial job assignment and at least annually thereafter.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Notify Cal/OSHA again if the job changes after your lead pre-job notification.
Three changes trigger a second notice: the starting date, the surface area to be disturbed, or the type of lead-related work or work practices used. Send Cal/OSHA the current information before you adopt the change or as you adopt it.
On the job
A contractor who filed a correct notice can become non-compliant purely because the job changed, which makes 'we already filed' one of the easier ways to fall out of compliance without doing anything wrong.
Exact wording
After giving lead pre-job notification, the employer must notify Cal/OSHA AGAIN, with the current information, if changes are made to the starting date, the surface area to be disturbed, or the type of lead-related work or work practices to be used — BEFORE OR UPON ADOPTION of the change.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Too few action-level days or a recent test excuses the pre-assignment blood lead test.
A trigger task is one of the tasks on the lead standard's trigger-task lists. Measure the exposures below without regard to respirator use. Each exposure exception requires both of its conditions. You may skip the pre-assignment blood lead test where the employee is not, and is not reasonably expected to be, exposed at or above the action level for 30 or more days in any 12 consecutive months and is not exposed on any day above 10 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour TWA; where the employee is not so exposed for 15 or more days in any 12 consecutive months and is not exposed on any day above 20 micrograms per cubic meter; or where the employee has had a blood lead test in the preceding two months. Before an employee performs a trigger task you must still make initial blood lead testing available as interim protection, unless a negative initial determination has been made.
On the job
Two independent testing duties, and only one of them has exceptions. A worker who qualifies for every exception still needs testing before a trigger task unless a negative initial determination exists, so 'he is exempt' is an answer to the wrong question.
Exact wording
Initial blood lead testing is NOT required in three situations: where the employee is not, and is not reasonably expected to be, exposed at or above the action level for 30 or more days in any 12 consecutive months AND is not exposed on any day above 10 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour TWA; where the employee is not so exposed for 15 or more days in any 12 consecutive months AND is not exposed on any day above 20 micrograms per cubic meter; or where the employee has had a blood lead test in the preceding two months. Each exposure exception is measured WITHOUT REGARD TO RESPIRATOR USE, and each requires BOTH of its conditions. These three exceptions attach to the PRE-ASSIGNMENT testing duty only. A SEPARATE duty stands beside it: initial blood lead testing must also be made available as interim protection before an employee performs a trigger task, unless a negative initial determination has been made — and the three exceptions do not reach that duty.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Put every employee exposed to lead at or above the action level under medical surveillance.
The lead medical surveillance duty reaches employees who may be exposed, not only those already exposed. You do not owe surveillance in four cases. One: the employee is not exposed at or above the action level on 30 or more days in any 12 consecutive months and is not exposed above 10 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour TWA on any day. Two: the employee is not so exposed on 15 or more days in any 12 consecutive months and is not exposed above 20 micrograms per cubic meter on any day. Three: for the interim-protection surveillance owed to employees who perform trigger tasks, a negative initial determination has been made under the standard. Four: the employee performs only level 1 trigger tasks and does not perform them on 10 or more days in any 12 consecutive months. Each exposure figure is measured without regard to respirator use, so respirators cannot bring an employee inside an exception.
On the job
Every exception here is two conditions joined by AND — a day count and a concentration ceiling — and dropping either half exempts a worker the standard does not exempt. The measurement ignores respirators, so protective equipment cannot bring someone inside an exception.
Exact wording
The employer must institute a medical surveillance program for all employees who are or may be exposed to lead at or above the action level; surveillance is not required for an employee not so exposed for 30 or more days in any 12 consecutive months AND not exposed on any day above 10 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour TWA, nor for an employee not so exposed for 15 or more days in any 12 consecutive months who is also not exposed on any day above 20 micrograms per cubic meter, nor — for the interim-protection surveillance owed to employees who perform trigger tasks — where a negative initial determination has been made under the standard, nor for an employee who only performs level 1 trigger tasks and does not perform them on 10 or more days in any 12 consecutive months. Each exception's exposure figures are measured WITHOUT REGARD TO RESPIRATOR USE.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
You must never allow prophylactic chelation of any employee.
Prophylactic chelation is chelation used to prevent lead poisoning, not to treat or diagnose it. No one you retain, employ, supervise or control may do it to an employee at any time. Therapeutic or diagnostic chelation by such a person is allowed only if a physician or other licensed health care professional performs it in a clinical setting with thorough and appropriate medical monitoring, and you notify the employee in writing before the chelation occurs.
On the job
An absolute prohibition with no measurement threshold attached — it applies at any time, at any exposure level. Chelation strips metals from the blood, and using it PREVENTIVELY treats a worker's body as the control measure instead of controlling the lead. The rule reaches anyone the employer retains or controls, so hiring a clinic to do it is not a way around it.
Exact wording
Within the construction lead standard, the employer must ensure that any person whom the employer retains, employs, supervises or controls does not engage in prophylactic chelation of any employee at any time; and where therapeutic or diagnostic chelation is to be performed by such a person, the employer must ensure it is done by a physician or other licensed health care professional in a clinical setting with thorough and appropriate medical monitoring, and that the employee is notified in writing before it occurs.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
For ongoing maintenance, you notify Cal/OSHA once per stationary steel structure. Past one year, update annually.
Notifying once is enough only where the planned work includes a task listed in subsection (d)(2), neither notification exception removes the duty, and the job is ongoing lead-related operations and maintenance on a stationary steel structure lasting less than one year. If the work runs longer than a year, you must submit a supplemental written notification at least once per year, updating all the information subsection (p)(2) requires for each structure.
On the job
Bridges, towers and tanks get worked on continuously, and filing a fresh pre-job notice for every visit would be noise rather than notice. This is the relief for that pattern: one notification per structure. The trap is the second half — pass a year on the same structure and an annual update becomes due, which is easy to miss precisely because the original filing felt like the end of the duty.
Exact wording
Where the lead pre-job notification duty applies — that is, where the planned work includes a task listed in subsection (d)(2) and neither notification exception removes the duty — an employer conducting ongoing lead-related operations and maintenance work on stationary steel structures need only notify Cal/OSHA once for each structure if the work lasts less than one year; where it runs longer than a year, the employer must submit a supplemental written notification at least once per year updating all of the information subsection (p)(2) requires for each structure.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.1 ↗
Take away
10 rules · 7 minChromium, silica, and carcinogens
Exposure to portland cement falls outside the hexavalent chromium standard.
The hexavalent chromium standard covers occupational exposure to chromium (VI) in all forms and compounds in construction. It does not cover pesticide application regulated by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or another federal agency, such as treating wood with preservatives. It also does not cover a chromium-containing material, or a specific process, operation, or activity, when you have objective data showing it cannot release chromium (VI) at or above 0.5 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour time-weighted average. Exposure to strontium chromate must comply with section 5155 in addition to the chromium (VI) standard.
On the job
Portland cement and regulated pesticide use sit outside the chromium (VI) standard, and objective data below 0.5 µg/m³ take a material out too.
Exact wording
The hexavalent chromium standard applies to occupational exposures to chromium (VI) in all forms and compounds in construction, except exposures that occur in the application of pesticides regulated by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or another federal agency (such as the treatment of wood with preservatives), exposures to portland cement, and cases where the employer has objective data demonstrating that a chromium-containing material or a specific process, operation, or activity cannot release chromium (VI) at or above 0.5 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour time-weighted average. Exposures to strontium chromate must comply with section 5155 in addition to the hexavalent chromium standard.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.2 ↗
Keep every employee's chromium (VI) exposure under 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air.
Under the hexavalent chromium standard in construction, you calculate exposure as an eight-hour time-weighted average, so the 5 microgram limit is a full-shift average. The action level is 2.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air as an eight-hour time-weighted average.
On the job
Hexavalent chromium reaches construction through welding on stainless and through chromate primers, so it arrives on jobs nobody thinks of as chemical work.
Exact wording
Within the scope of the hexavalent chromium standard in construction, the employer must ensure that no employee is exposed to an airborne concentration of chromium (VI) in excess of 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air, calculated as an eight-hour time-weighted average, and for that standard the 'action level' means a concentration of airborne chromium (VI) of 2.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air as an eight-hour time-weighted average.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.2 ↗
You may not rotate employees between jobs to comply with the hexavalent chromium PEL.
You must also prohibit removing chromium (VI) from protective clothing or equipment by blowing, shaking, or any other means that disperses it into the air or onto an employee's body. You must ensure employees do not eat, drink, smoke, chew tobacco or gum, or apply cosmetics in areas where skin or eye contact with chromium (VI) occurs, and do not carry or store those products in those areas.
On the job
None of these depends on a measured level. Rotating the crew to spread the dose is prohibited under all three substance standards, and blowing dust off coveralls with an air hose is the habit this rule exists to stop.
Exact wording
Under the hexavalent chromium standard the employer must NOT rotate employees to different jobs to achieve compliance with the permissible exposure limit; must prohibit the removal of chromium (VI) from protective clothing and equipment by blowing, shaking, or any other means that disperses it into the air or onto an employee's body; and must ensure employees do not eat, drink, smoke, chew tobacco or gum, or apply cosmetics in areas where skin or eye contact with chromium (VI) occurs, or carry or store those products in such areas.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.2 ↗
You pay for protective clothing and equipment where chromium (VI) can reach skin or eyes.
The duty applies where a hazard from skin or eye contact with chromium (VI) is present or is likely to be present. You must provide appropriate protective clothing and equipment at no cost and ensure employees use it. You must also ensure that no employee removes chromium (VI)-contaminated clothing or equipment from the workplace, except employees whose job is to launder, clean, maintain, or dispose of it. And you must ensure employees do not enter eating and drinking areas wearing protective clothing or equipment unless surface chromium (VI) has been removed by methods that do not disperse it into the air or onto an employee's body.
On the job
The restrictions on removing and wearing the clothing only make sense once someone has issued it. The duty to PROVIDE comes first, it is triggered by a hazard being present or likely rather than by a measured exposure, and the cost falls on the employer.
Exact wording
Where a hazard is present or is likely to be present from skin or eye contact with chromium (VI), the employer must provide appropriate personal protective clothing and equipment AT NO COST to employees and ensure that employees use it. The employer must ensure that no employee removes chromium (VI)-contaminated protective clothing or equipment FROM THE WORKPLACE, except for those employees whose job it is to launder, clean, maintain or dispose of it; and must ensure that employees do not enter eating and drinking areas wearing protective clothing or equipment unless surface chromium (VI) has been removed by methods that do not disperse it into the air or onto an employee's body.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.2 ↗
You must provide a chromium (VI) exam within 30 days after you first assign the employee.
Medical surveillance under the hexavalent chromium standard runs on two clocks: the first examination within 30 days after initial assignment, then one examination every year after that. You may skip the first examination only if the employee already had a qualifying chromium (VI) medical examination within the last twelve months. Every examination and procedure the standard requires must be performed by a physician or other licensed health care professional, or under that professional's supervision.
On the job
The timing is only half the duty. An examination arranged on schedule but not performed by or under a licensed health care professional's supervision does not satisfy the standard, so booking it with whoever is available is not compliance.
Exact wording
Where the hexavalent chromium standard requires medical surveillance, the employer must provide a medical examination within 30 DAYS AFTER INITIAL ASSIGNMENT — unless the employee received a qualifying chromium (VI) medical examination within the last twelve months — and annually thereafter. Every medical examination and procedure the standard requires must be performed BY OR UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF a physician or other licensed health care professional.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.2 ↗
Registering asbestos-related work does not replace the carcinogen Report of Use. You must file both.
Asbestos is a regulated carcinogen. You must report your use of a regulated carcinogen in writing to the Chief of the Division when any one of these triggers is met: for a carcinogen whose standard requires a regulated area, use inside such an area; for chromium (VI), exposure that exceeds or can reasonably be expected to exceed the PEL; for every other regulated carcinogen, any use at a concentration of 0.1 percent or more by weight or volume that results in actual or potential employee exposure. Asbestos also carries its own report-of-use and asbestos-related-work registration duties, so those filings stay separate obligations.
On the job
Registration under the asbestos rules and the carcinogen Report of Use are different filings with different triggers, so satisfying one says nothing about the other. Read each one's own trigger rather than assuming the smaller job is unregulated.
Exact wording
Asbestos is a regulated carcinogen, and an employer's USE of a regulated carcinogen must be reported in writing to the Chief of the Division where the section's own triggers are met: for carcinogens whose standard requires a regulated area, use within such an area; for chromium (VI), exposure that exceeds or can reasonably be expected to exceed the PEL; and for other regulated carcinogens, any use at a concentration of 0.1 percent or more by weight or volume resulting in actual or potential employee exposure. Asbestos carries additional report-of-use and asbestos-related-work registration requirements of its own, so these are separate obligations rather than one.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5203 ↗
If you use a regulated carcinogen, report that use in writing to the Chief.
If your worksites are temporary, you file the initial Report of Use and any changes only for your permanent workplace location. You must still notify the nearest Division district office about each temporary worksite: the time and date of commencement, the approximate duration, the location, the type of business, and the kind of work. Give that notice at least 24 hours before each job begins when feasible.
On the job
The temporary-worksite rule is relief from WHERE you report, not from WHETHER you do. A contractor reading only the relief could conclude that moving between jobs removes the reporting duty rather than relocating it.
Exact wording
Every employer who uses a regulated carcinogen must report that use IN WRITING TO THE CHIEF. An employer with TEMPORARY WORKSITES need only provide the initial carcinogen Report of Use and changes for its permanent workplace location, but must also notify the nearest Division district office of the time and date of commencement, the approximate duration, the location, the type of business and the kind of work for EACH temporary worksite at least 24 HOURS BEFORE the commencement of each job when feasible.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5203 ↗
Repeat silica monitoring within six months above the action level and three months above the PEL.
If your most recent monitoring shows exposures at or above the action level but at or below the PEL, repeat the monitoring within six months. Above the PEL, repeat within three months. If a later result is below the action level, repeat within six months until two consecutive measurements taken seven or more days apart are below the action level. Then you may stop monitoring the employees those measurements represent, as you may after an initial result below the action level. You must still reassess exposures whenever a change in production, process, control equipment, personnel, or work practices may reasonably be expected to result in new or additional exposures at or above the action level, or whenever you have any reason to believe such exposures have occurred.
On the job
Silica monitoring is a cadence, not a one-time reading: six months, three months, and two clean results a week apart before it stops.
Exact wording
Under the silica standard's exposure-assessment subsection, where the most recent exposure monitoring shows employee exposures at or above the action level but at or below the PEL the employer must repeat the monitoring within six months; where it shows exposures above the PEL, within three months; and where a non-initial result is below the action level, within six months, until two consecutive measurements taken seven or more days apart are below the action level — at which point monitoring may be discontinued for the employees those measurements represent, as it may be after an initial result below the action level — always subject to the duty to reassess exposures whenever a change in production, process, control equipment, personnel, or work practices may reasonably be expected to result in new or additional exposures at or above the action level, or whenever the employer has any reason to believe such exposures have occurred.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.3 ↗
Offer silica medical surveillance to any employee on a respirator 30 or more days yearly.
Silica medical surveillance is a set of medical examinations performed by a PLHCP, which you make available at no cost and at a reasonable time and place. Count only respirator use the standard requires. The standard covers respirable crystalline silica in construction work, except where exposure will stay below 25 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour TWA under any foreseeable conditions. Make the baseline examination available within 30 days after initial assignment, unless the employee has had an examination meeting the standard's requirements within the last three years. Then repeat the baseline procedures, other than the latent tuberculosis test, at least every three years, or more often if the PLHCP recommends.
On the job
Two clocks — 30 days to the baseline exam and three years between exams — and a trigger keyed to respirator days, not to a measured concentration.
Exact wording
Under the construction silica standard — which applies to occupational exposures to respirable crystalline silica in construction work except where exposure will remain below 25 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour TWA under any foreseeable conditions — the employer must make medical surveillance available at no cost, and at a reasonable time and place, to each employee who will be required under the standard to use a respirator for 30 or more days per year, with all examinations performed by a PLHCP: an initial (baseline) medical examination made available within 30 days after initial assignment, unless the employee has received an examination meeting the standard's requirements within the last three years, and periodic examinations, repeating the baseline procedures other than the latent tuberculosis test, at least every three years, or more frequently if the PLHCP recommends.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.3 ↗
You must record every exposure measurement you take under the construction silica standard.
The exposure assessment that triggers this duty covers tasks not listed in Table 1 of the respirable crystalline silica standard for construction, or tasks where you do not fully and properly implement the engineering controls, work practices, and respiratory protection Table 1 specifies for the task. Each record must be accurate and show the date of each sample, the task monitored, the sampling and analytical methods, the number, duration, and results of the samples, the laboratory that did the analysis, the protective equipment the monitored employees wore, and the name, social security number, and job classification of every employee the monitoring represents, indicating which ones were actually monitored. Also keep a record of any objective data you rely on to comply with the standard. Maintain exposure records and make them available in accordance with the access-to-records section.
On the job
The silica standard tells you what goes in the exposure record, and an employer that fully follows Table 1 for a listed task has no exposure assessment to record at all; how long records are kept comes from the access-to-records section instead.
Exact wording
Under the respirable crystalline silica standard for construction, the employer must make and maintain an accurate record of all exposure measurements taken to assess employee exposure as prescribed in the standard's exposure-assessment subsection — which applies to tasks not listed in Table 1, or where the employer does not fully and properly implement the engineering controls, work practices, and respiratory protection Table 1 specifies for the task — including the date of each sample, the task monitored, the sampling and analytical methods, the number, duration, and results of samples, the laboratory that did the analysis, the protective equipment worn by the employees monitored, and the name, social security number, and job classification of every employee the monitoring represents, indicating which were actually monitored. The employer must also keep a record of any objective data it relies on to comply with the standard, and exposure records are maintained and made available in accordance with the access-to-records section.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (Construction Safety Orders) § 1532.3 ↗
Take away
4 rules · 3 minExposure and medical records
Keep each employee exposure record for at least 30 years.
Unless a specific safety and health regulation sets a different period, 30 years is the floor, and three kinds of paperwork have their own shorter rule. Background data to workplace monitoring, such as laboratory reports and worksheets, need be kept only one year, but only if you keep the sampling results, the sampling plan, the analytical methods, and a summary of other relevant background data for 30 years. Safety data sheets need only the retention that section 5194 requires; where you destroy them, keep a record of the substance's identity, the chemical name if known, plus where it was used and when it was used, for at least 30 years. Chemical-identity records such as an inventory have no set retention period, as long as some record of the identity, where, and when is kept for 30 years.
On the job
Thirty years is the exposure-record figure, and the one-year background-data carve-out is the trap.
Exact wording
Unless a specific safety and health regulation sets a different period, each employee exposure record must be preserved for at least 30 years, except that background data to workplace monitoring, such as laboratory reports and worksheets, need be kept only one year so long as the sampling results, the sampling plan, the analytical methods, and a summary of other relevant background data are kept for 30 years; safety data sheets need be retained only as long as section 5194 requires, but where they are destroyed a record of the identity (chemical name if known) of the substance, where it was used, and when it was used must be kept for at least 30 years; and chemical-identity records such as an inventory need not be kept for any set period so long as some record of the identity, where, and when is kept for 30 years.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3204 ↗
Keep each employee's medical record for the whole of employment plus 30 years.
A medical record here is a record of an employee's health status made or kept by a physician, nurse, or other health care worker. Unless a specific safety and health regulation sets a different period, you must preserve each such record for at least the duration of employment plus 30 years, so that is a floor, not a cap. Three kinds of records need no set retention period: health insurance claims records kept separately from your medical program; first-aid records, medical histories excluded, of one-time treatment and later observation of minor scratches, cuts, burns, splinters and the like that involved no medical treatment, no loss of consciousness, no restriction of work or motion, and no transfer to another job, if made on site by a non-physician and kept separately; and the medical records of employees who worked less than one year, if those employees received the records at termination.
On the job
Employment plus thirty years is the medical-record figure; first-aid logs of minor one-time treatment kept apart, separate insurance claim files, and records handed to short-term employees at termination are the exceptions.
Exact wording
Unless a specific safety and health regulation sets a different period, each employee's medical record must be preserved for at least the duration of employment plus 30 years, except that health insurance claims records kept separately from the employer's medical program, first-aid records — excluding medical histories — of one-time treatment and subsequent observation of minor scratches, cuts, burns, splinters, and the like that did not involve medical treatment, loss of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, or transfer to another job, if made on site by a non-physician and kept separately, and the medical records of employees who worked less than one year and received them at termination need not be kept for any set period.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3204 ↗
You may keep exposure and medical records in any form. Chest X-ray films are the exception.
The information in the record must be preserved and retrievable, and so long as it is, the access-to-records section leaves the form, manner, and process of preservation to you. Keep chest X-ray films in their original state.
On the job
Any storage method works as long as the record stays retrievable, except chest X-ray films, which must be kept in their original state.
Exact wording
The access-to-records section does not mandate the form, manner, or process of preservation so long as the information in the record is preserved and retrievable, except that chest X-ray films must be preserved in their original state.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3204 ↗
When you close the business, transfer your records to the successor employer.
Every record subject to the access-to-records section goes with the business, and the successor employer must receive and maintain them. If there is no successor employer, notify affected employees of their rights of access to records at least three months before the business ceases. For records that must be preserved for at least 30 years — whether you are ceasing business with no successor or intend to dispose of them — transfer them to the Director of NIOSH where a specific occupational safety and health standard requires it, or notify the Director of NIOSH in writing of the impending disposal at least three months before you dispose of them.
On the job
A 30-year retention duty outlives most contracting businesses; the duty travels to the buyer, and with no buyer it becomes a three-month notice to the workers and to NIOSH.
Exact wording
An employer ceasing to do business must transfer all records subject to the access-to-records section to the successor employer, who must receive and maintain them. Where there is no successor employer, the employer must notify affected employees of their rights of access to records at least three months before the business ceases; and for records required to be preserved for at least 30 years — whether the employer is ceasing business with no successor or intends to dispose of them — the employer must transfer them to the Director of NIOSH where a specific occupational safety and health standard requires it, or notify the Director of NIOSH in writing of the impending disposal at least three months before disposing of them.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 3204 ↗
Take away
9 rules · 7 minViolations and penalties
means a hazardous substance exposure that could realistically cause death or serious harm later.
In the Labor Code's occupational safety division, a serious exposure is an employee's exposure to a hazardous substance from an incident, an accident, an emergency, or exposure over time. The degree or amount must create a realistic possibility that the actual hazard created could cause death or serious physical harm in the future.
On the job
A serious exposure is defined by future risk rather than present injury, so it can exist on a day when nobody feels unwell and nothing has been reported.
Exact wording
In the Labor Code's occupational safety division, 'serious exposure' means any exposure of an employee to a hazardous substance, occurring as a result of an incident, accident, emergency, or exposure over time, that is in a degree or amount sufficient to create a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm in the future could result from the actual hazard created by the exposure.
The Division presumes a serious violation from a realistic possibility of death or serious harm.
A serious violation is presumed if the Division of Occupational Safety and Health demonstrates a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm could result from the actual hazard created by the violation. Proving the violation alone does not make it serious. The presumption is rebuttable.
On the job
The presumption moves the burden. Without it the Division would have to prove what an employer knew, and knowledge lives inside the company. Showing a realistic possibility of death or serious harm is something an inspector can establish from the site itself. The employer can still rebut it — but it has to.
Exact wording
There is a rebuttable presumption that a serious violation exists in a place of employment if the Division of Occupational Safety and Health demonstrates that there is a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm could result from the actual hazard created by the violation, and demonstrating a violation is not by itself sufficient to establish that the violation is serious.
Serious physical harm covers inpatient hospitalization. A stay only for medical observation is outside it.
Serious physical harm is any injury or illness, specific or cumulative, occurring in the place of employment or in connection with any employment. It must result in inpatient hospitalization for purposes other than medical observation, the loss of any member of the body, any serious degree of permanent disfigurement, or impairment that leaves a part of the body or the function of an organ permanently and significantly reduced in efficiency, on or off the job. Depending on the severity, that list includes but is not limited to second-degree or worse burns, crushing injuries — including internal injuries even though the skin surface may be intact — respiratory illnesses, or broken bones. Silicosis and silica-related lung cancer qualify on their own.
On the job
This is the term the serious-violation presumption turns on, and it cuts both ways. A hospital stay purely for observation is outside it. A broken bone or an internal crushing injury with unbroken skin can be inside it, depending on severity, where the impairment permanently and significantly reduces efficiency.
Exact wording
Serious physical harm means any injury or illness, specific or cumulative, occurring in the place of employment or in connection with any employment that results in inpatient hospitalization for purposes other than medical observation, the loss of any member of the body, any serious degree of permanent disfigurement, impairment sufficient to cause a part of the body or the function of an organ to become permanently and significantly reduced in efficiency on or off the job — including, but not limited to, depending on the severity, second-degree or worse burns, crushing injuries including internal injuries even though the skin surface may be intact, respiratory illnesses, or broken bones — or silicosis or silica-related lung cancer.
An employer's safety violation determined not serious draws a penalty up to $12,471 for each violation.
The $12,471 ceiling covers a violation of an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code where the violation is specifically determined not to be of a serious nature. That maximum increases each January 1 by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The regulation making that annual adjustment is filed with the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Code of Regulations, so the published adjusted figure controls, not the amount printed in the statute. Your penalty is calculated using the amounts in effect during the calendar year the citation was issued, not the amounts in effect when the violation occurred.
On the job
The ceiling moves every January, so which year applies is a real question with a real answer: the year the citation issued. A violation found late in one year and cited early in the next is measured by the new schedule.
Exact wording
An employer who violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, where the violation is specifically determined not to be of a serious nature, may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $12,471 for each violation, and that maximum is increased each January 1 based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. Any such penalty is calculated using the penalty amounts in effect during the calendar year in which the citation was issued, not those in effect when the violation occurred, and the regulation making that annual adjustment is filed with the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Code of Regulations — so the operative figure is the published adjusted one rather than the amount printed in the statute.
Each serious violation draws a civil penalty of up to $25,000.
A serious violation is one where the hazard created carries a realistic possibility of death or serious physical harm. The $25,000 ceiling applies to each violation of an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or of Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code. If your injury prevention program is not operative, you receive no adjustment for good faith and none for history of previous violations.
On the job
An employer with no operative injury prevention program loses the good-faith and prior-history reductions, so the serious-violation penalty is assessed without those two adjustments.
Exact wording
An employer who commits a serious violation of an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, shall be assessed a civil penalty of up to $25,000 for each violation, and an employer that does not have an operative injury prevention program receives no adjustment for good faith or for history of previous violations.
Employers face up to $124,709 per willful or repeated violation. Willful ones carry an $8,908 minimum.
That $124,709 ceiling covers any occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, and enterprise-wide violations under Labor Code section 6317. Each willful violation also carries a minimum civil penalty of $8,908. Both figures rise each January 1 by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, and that adjustment is filed with the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Code of Regulations. Your penalty is calculated from the amounts in effect during the calendar year the citation was issued, not the year the violation happened, so the published adjusted figure controls, not the amount printed in the statute.
On the job
Willful and repeated sit in their own penalty tier because they describe a choice rather than a lapse: a ceiling of $124,709 per violation and a floor of $8,908 for each willful one, both CPI-indexed. What counts as 'repeatedly' is defined by the repeat-violation regulation, not by this section.
Exact wording
An employer who willfully or repeatedly violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, or who commits an enterprise-wide violation as specified in Labor Code section 6317, may be assessed a civil penalty of not more than $124,709 for each violation, and in no case less than $8,908 for each willful violation; both figures are increased each January 1 based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. Any penalty is calculated using the penalty amounts in effect during the calendar year in which the citation was issued, not those in effect when the violation occurred, and the regulation making that annual adjustment is filed with the Office of Administrative Law for publication in the California Code of Regulations — so the operative figure is the published adjusted one rather than the amount printed in the statute.
You commit a crime if a willful safety violation causes an employee's death or impairment.
Willfully carries its Penal Code section 7 meaning, and the offense reaches the employer and any employee having direction, management, control, or custody of any employment, place of employment, or other employee. The violation must be of an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, and it must cause an employee's death or permanent or prolonged impairment of the body; that is a public offense. Absent a qualifying prior conviction within the preceding seven years, punishment is either up to one year in county jail, a fine up to $100,000, or both; or 16 months, two years, or three years in state prison, a fine of not more than $250,000, or both. Either way, if the defendant is a corporation or a limited liability company, the fine may not exceed $1,500,000. A manslaughter prosecution under Penal Code section 192 stays available.
On the job
This one reaches past the company to the individual who had direction or control, so a supervisor is personally exposed and not only the employer. The stated ranges are also not the outer limit of criminal exposure — the section expressly leaves a manslaughter prosecution available.
Exact wording
An employer, or an employee having direction, management, control, or custody of any employment, place of employment, or other employee, who willfully violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, and that violation causes death to an employee, or causes permanent or prolonged impairment of the body of an employee, is guilty of a public offense. Absent a qualifying prior conviction within the preceding seven years, it is punishable EITHER by imprisonment in a county jail for a term not exceeding one year, or a fine not exceeding $100,000, or both; OR by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or two or three years, or a fine of not more than $250,000, or both. In either case, if the defendant is a corporation or a limited liability company, the fine may not exceed $1,500,000. As used in that section, “willfully” has the same definition as it has in Penal Code section 7, and the section does not prohibit a prosecution under Penal Code section 192.
An employer who repeatedly violates a safety standard loses good faith and history penalty adjustments.
Regulations under Labor Code section 6319(c) otherwise allow a civil penalty to be adjusted for your good faith and for your history of previous violations. Neither basis adjusts any civil penalty assessed under that section once you repeatedly violate an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code.
On the job
Good faith and prior history are the two adjustments a contractor most expects to earn by cooperating, and repeating a violation is what forfeits them. The bar removes those two bases only, and it applies to any penalty assessed under the section.
Exact wording
An employer who repeatedly violates an occupational safety or health standard, order, or special order, or Section 25910 of the Health and Safety Code, does not receive any adjustment of any civil penalty assessed under that section on the basis of the regulations promulgated under Labor Code section 6319(c) pertaining to the good faith of the employer or the history of previous violations of the employer.
You rebut the serious violation presumption only by proving prevention beforehand and effective action once discovered.
The presumption attaches once the Division establishes that a violation is serious. To rebut it, demonstrate both: that you took all the steps a reasonable and responsible employer in like circumstances should be expected to take before the violation occurred to anticipate and prevent it, and that you took effective action to eliminate employee exposure to the hazard as soon as the violation was discovered. Those two showings together establish that you did not know, and could not with the exercise of reasonable diligence have known, of the presence of the violation.
On the job
Not knowing is the conclusion, not the evidence. The statute names what actually proves it, and the two halves sit on opposite sides of the violation — what you did beforehand to prevent it, and what you did afterwards the moment you found it. A contractor who can show only one has not rebutted anything.
Exact wording
Where the Division establishes the presumption that a violation is serious, the employer may rebut that presumption and establish that the violation is not serious by demonstrating that the employer did not know, and could not with the exercise of reasonable diligence have known, of the presence of the violation. The employer accomplishes this by demonstrating BOTH of two things: that it took all the steps a reasonable and responsible employer in like circumstances should be expected to take BEFORE the violation occurred to anticipate and prevent it, and that it took effective action to eliminate employee exposure to the hazard AS SOON AS the violation was discovered.
Take away
- Serious exposure means a hazardous substance exposure that could realistically cause death or serious harm later.
- The Division presumes a serious violation from a realistic possibility of death or serious harm.
- Serious physical harm covers inpatient hospitalization. A stay only for medical observation is outside it.
Important numbers to know
Where people go wrong
Sounds right: Asbestos rules only apply if I am doing abatement.
Where’s the catch?
Easy to mix up: 100 square feet vs. one-tenth of 1 percent
Which is which?
Sounds right: The safety data sheets are in the truck, so we are covered.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: I poured thinner into an unlabeled jar, but it is for me and it is just today.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Lumber is excluded from hazard communication.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: We buy it at the home center, so it is a consumer product and exempt.
Where’s the catch?
Easy to mix up: Action level vs. permissible exposure limit
Which is which?
Sounds right: We will monitor first and find out whether the lead rules apply.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: No lab result yet, so the asbestos rules are not engaged.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: We had it tested, so the presumption is rebutted.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Each room is under 100 square feet, so no registration.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: We applied for the asbestos registration, so we can start.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: It arrived as a finished product, so it is an and exempt.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Proposition 65 means we have to warn about everything.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: The air sample came back clean, so we are out of the asbestos rules.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: We put the crew in respirators, so we are under the limit.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: The dry-sweeping ban is an asbestos rule.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Rotating the crew keeps everyone under the limit.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: We found asbestos we did not expect — we will note it in the closeout.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Nobody is over the limit, so the extra precautions are optional.
Where’s the catch?
Easy to mix up: Asbestos registration vs. lead pre-job notification
Which is which?
Sounds right: We hired a certified abatement contractor, so the asbestos exposure is theirs.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: We filed the lead notice before the job started, so notification is done.
Where’s the catch?
Sounds right: Anyone who touches lead needs blood testing and medical surveillance.
Where’s the catch?
Glossary
Every term this guide defines, in one place. Each is also defined where it first appears.
- Article (hazard communication)
- A manufactured item meeting all three conditions. It is formed to a specific shape or design during manufacture. Its end use function depends in whole or part on that shape or design. And it releases no hazardous chemical, and causes no exposure to one, under normal conditions of use or a reasonably foreseeable workplace emergency. Articles are outside the standard — but the third condition is what most construction work defeats, because cutting, grinding, welding or sanding a component releases something.
- Competent person (asbestos)
- Someone able to identify existing and predictable hazards and existing asbestos hazards, select the appropriate control strategy, and take prompt corrective measures with authority to do so — and who, for Class I and Class II work, is specially trained in a course meeting the criteria of EPA's Model Accreditation Plan for supervisor or its equivalent, and for Class III and Class IV work is trained consistently with EPA's requirements for local education agency maintenance and custodial staff (40 CFR 763.92(a)(2)).
- Serious exposure
- Exposure of an employee to a hazardous substance, from an incident, an accident, an emergency, or exposure over time. The amount must be sufficient to create a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm IN THE FUTURE could result from the actual hazard created. Unlike a serious injury, nobody has to be hurt yet.
Keep going
- Practice questions for Law & Business — Safety is 14% of the exam.
- Job scenario: The Popcorn Ceiling
- Job scenario: Five Feet Down
- Also in Safety: Safety Programs and Reporting: What You Write Down and Who You Tell
- Also in Safety: General Safety: Permits, Heat Illness, Falls, Excavations, and Emergency Care
- Every number on one page — this guide’s figures alongside every other Law & Business guide’s.
Test yourself: 7 questions for this guide
A paid account adds more ways to practice and prepare: study questions after every chapter, practice questions for every topic, timed practice exams, and job scenarios drawn from real jobs. A free account gets you one timed practice exam and saves your progress across devices. Here is one of this guide's questions:
You are the GC on a tenant improvement. Your painting sub brings solvents and your flooring sub brings adhesives, and both crews work in the same room. Whose hazard communication problem is that?
AnswerEveryone's, and the written program is where it gets solved. Each employer with a hazardous chemical present owes its own written program, safety data sheets and training. But in a multi-employer workplace the written program must ALSO state three sets of methods. How you give employers SHARING THE SAME WORK AREA access to safety data sheets for chemicals their employees may be exposed to. How you inform them of precautionary measures needed during normal operations and foreseeable emergencies. And how you inform them of the labeling system in use. So the duty is not just to protect your own crew from your own chemicals — it is to tell the other employers what you brought.
Code of Regulations, Title 8 (General Industry Safety Orders) § 5194 ↗
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