Updating the PELs
AIHA is preparing to launch another effort to see if we can find a new process to "update the PELs". But such an effort will only work if we have the "buy-in" of OSHA and the Administration. This remains to be seen. While we have received "off-the-record" support from OSHA that they may even be willing to have a non-voting representative on the working group, I'm a little concerned about what might happen when we have a permanent Asistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. If the rumor is correct that David Michaels will probably be named the Assistant Secretary, it raises some interesting questions. Mr. Michaels has written that "successive OSHA administrators have simply recognized that establishing new standards is so time and labor-intensive, and will inevitably call forth such orchestrated opposition from industry, that it is not worth expending the agency's limited resources on the issue". Let's hope this is just his opinion on previous efforts at OSHA and are not his view of what he may or may do with the issue. Sure hope this question is raised at any confirmation hearing.