Opinion ID: 1433888
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Infeasibility of 1 μg/m3 PEL

Text: As discussed above, OSHA concluded that the proposed PEL of 1 μg/m3 was infeasible because the Agency could not prove feasibility in workplaces employing nearly 56% of the workers exposed to Cr(VI), or 312,169 out of 558,431 workers. To conduct its analysis, OSHA categorized workers by application groups, defined by common tasks, rather than industries defined by end products. OSHA affirmatively concluded that a 1 μg/m3 PEL was technologically infeasible in welding and aerospace painting, accounting for 270,000 and 8,300 workers respectively. Furthermore, OSHA concluded that it could not meet its burden to prove that the standard was technologically feasible for the 469 workers in chromium pigment, catalyst, and dye production. Finally, OSHA determined that it would be economically infeasible for electroplating job shops, employing 33,400 workers, to comply with a 1 μg/m3 PEL. HRG challenges OSHA's determinations for each of these workplace categories. [3]
With regard to welding, HRG argues that the finding of infeasibility was flawed on two grounds. First, HRG challenges OSHA's use of application groups, instead of industries, to delineate groups of workers. HRG argues that OSHA must demonstrate that a typical firm will be able to comply with a PEL in most of its operations most of the time, and, since welding describes a single operation within a firm, rather than a type of firm defined by an industry, OSHA did not conduct an appropriate analysis. We disagree. As an initial matter, nothing in 29 U.S.C. § 655(b)(5) requires OSHA to analyze employee groups by industry, nor does the term industry even appear. In the face of this statutory silence, HRG presents no argument as to why the Agency's choice of methodology to implement the statute should not be afforded deference under Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843-44, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). We also note that OSHA has employed the application group methodology in prior standards. See Occupational Exposure to Methylene Chloride, 62 Fed.Reg. 1,494, 1,564 (Jan. 10, 1997). OSHA explained that the application group methodology is appropriate to exposure to Cr(VI) where a widely used chemical like chromium may lead to exposures in many kinds of firms in many industries but the processes used, exposures generated, and controls needed to achieve compliance may be the same. 71 Fed.Reg. 10,226. The Agency specifically stated that a given type of welding produces Cr(VI) exposures that are essentially the same ... [and] it is appropriate to analyze such processes as a group. Id. In light of OSHA's stated reasons for utilizing the application group methodology, we will not substitute another. Also, we find that the application group methodology is consistent with Lead. OSHA determined that technology did not exist that would permit certain welding operations to achieve exposure levels of 1 μg/m3 without reliance on respirators. An employer would thus be unable to achieve the PEL in those operations, regardless of whether the operations constituted all or a portion of the employer's business. HRG would apparently have us require OSHA to research all operations of all employers with Cr(VI) exposure, including operations that do not involve Cr(VI), to determine whether a typical firm could meet the PEL in most of its operations. Such an interpretation would severely hinder OSHA's ability to regulate exposure to common toxins, a result that would appear to run afoul of HRG's own interests. Furthermore, in a review of the lead standard that followed its Lead decision, the D.C. Circuit upheld a technological feasibility determination by OSHA that considered only the specific operations in leaded steel production that caused exposure to airborne lead. Am. Iron & Steel Inst. v. OSHA, 939 F.2d 975, 983-86 (D.C.Cir.1991). We accordingly conclude that it was appropriate for OSHA to consider only those operations involving Cr(VI) exposure in assessing the technological feasibility of the proposed 1 μg/m3 PEL. HRG also argues that the technological infeasibility determination with regard to welding was not supported by substantial evidence because the record demonstrates that most welding operations could comply with the 1 μg/m3 most of the time without respirators. OSHA's feasibility concerns regarding welding focused on the common practices of stainless steel shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), and stainless steel welding in confined spaces. HRG points to evidence in the record that only 22.3% of all stainless steel welders, and 29% of SMAW welders, would require respirators to meet a 1 μg/m3 PEL. See FEA at ES-34; 71 Fed.Reg. 10,335. HRG contends that the record therefore demonstrates that the 1 μg/m3 PEL is feasible for all welding operations. HRG's argument is flawed for at least two reasons. First, HRG asserts a novel rule for technological feasibility that has never been applied by OSHA, nor recognized in any court. HRG twists the Lead methodology, and would have us require OSHA to find a PEL to be technologically feasible so long as a majority of a typical employer's workers performing an operation would not have to wear respirators. If this were the rule, no employer would be required to further remove toxins from the air, or further limit employee presence in contaminated air, so long as exposure could be kept at or below a PEL with 49% of the employees wearing respirators. Neither the Lead decision nor logic support HRG's position. In crafting its feasibility rule in Lead, the D.C. Circuit accepted OSHA's hierarchy of compliance controls and simply incorporated them into a manageable standard of proof. This hierarchy, the same one at issue here, strongly disfavors respirators as an ineffective, unreliable, and unsafe method of reducing employee exposure, and generally restricts their use to supplementary, interim or short term purposes. 43 Fed. Reg. 52,990; see Lead, 647 F.2d at 1205 n. 12 (This key provision of the lead standard is based on OSHA's view that respirators are an inferior and inadequate means of protecting workers.). Nothing in Lead, nor in any case reviewing an airborne toxin standard, can be read to support a technological feasibility rule that would effectively encourage the routine and widespread use of respirators to comply with a PEL. [4] In fact, HRG's support for such a rule is surprising since the purpose of OSHA's hierarchy is to drive employers to use more effective means than respirators to protect workers from toxins. Second, OSHA amply explained why compliance problems in stainless steel SMAW and enclosed space welding operations rendered a 1 μg/m3 PEL technologically infeasible for welding generally. OSHA stated: Welders are not generally assigned to a particular welding process. Instead, welders frequently perform different types of welding on different types of metals in different environmentssometimes even during the same shift. [citing comments from industry] For example, a welder may spend part of his shift performing a task for which exposures cannot be reduced below the PEL, e.g., SMAW on stainless steel in a confined space, and other parts of his shift performing welding tasks for which exposures may be below 1 μg/m3. FEA at III-336. Furthermore, workers performing different welding tasks often work next to one another, rendering it impractical to separate employees on an operation by operation basis. Id. Accordingly, Although a PEL of 1 μg/m3 may be technologically feasible for some less common welding processes, the fact that welding is not easily separated into high and low exposure operations renders OSHA unable to conclude that the proposed PEL of 1 μg/m3 is technologically feasible for any welding operations. Id. Thus, OSHA's conclusion that a PEL of 1 μg/m3 was technologically infeasible for welding operations is supported by substantial evidence, was adequately explained, and also comports with both past practice and prior decisions.
HRG argues that OSHA's conclusion that a 1 μg/m3 PEL would be infeasible for aerospace painting was flawed for two reasons. First, HRG again challenges the use of application groups, asserting that the technological feasibility analysis was improper because aerospace painting is an operation rather than an industry. This argument fails for the same reasons discussed above. HRG's second argument is particularly confusing and equally unavailing. OSHA found that the painting of whole aircraft or large aerospace structures, activities comprising approximately two thirds of aerospace painting, could not be conducted in compliance with either a 1 μg/m3 PEL or a 5 μg/m3 PEL without reliance on respirators. FEA at III-337. OSHA accordingly built an exception into the final rule, whereby employers engaged in these activities need only achieve airborne Cr(VI) concentrations of 25 μg/m3 through engineering and work practice controls, and could rely on respirators to further reduce exposure to the 5 μg/m3 PEL. 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1026(f)(1)(ii). HRG does not dispute OSHA's conclusion that a majority of aerospace painting operations cannot achieve either a 1 μg/m3 PELor a 5 μg/m3 PEL through engineering and work practice controls. Neither does HRG challenge OSHA's explanation for the aerospace painting exception. Instead, HRG argues that, because OSHA found it acceptable for one third of the workers in aerospace painting to wear respirators in order to comply with a 5 μg/m3 PEL, the Agency was required to explain why more widespread respirator use would not have been acceptable to support a 1 μg/m3 PEL. This argument is illogical. OSHA carved out an aerospace painting exception from its general rule disfavoring respirators, a rule adopted for the benefit of workers, in order to institute a lower uniform PEL of 5μg/m3. In exercising its discretion to make this exception, OSHA had no obligation to explain why it did not accept a greater deviation from the rule. Since HRG offers nothing to challenge the adequacy of OSHA's decision as explained in the record and written into the final rule, HRG's argument pertaining to aerospace painting must fail.
HRG also challenges OSHA's conclusion that the Agency could not prove the technological feasibility of a 1 μg/m3 PEL in the chromium pigment, catalyst, and dye production industries, industries that together accounted for only 469 workers in the feasibility analysis. OSHA identified enclosures which, when combined with ventilation systems, could generally achieve Cr(VI) exposures of 1μg/m3 or less. 71 Fed.Reg. 10,337. However, OSHA pointed to industry evidence that the ventilation systems could cause significant and intolerable product loss by extracting the fine powders that contained Cr(VI). Id. OSHA also pointed to evidence that some plants, especially older facilities, would not be able to physically accommodate enclosures. Id. OSHA estimated that 44% or more of the workers in these industries would require respirators to achieve 1μg/m3 concentrations, and accordingly concluded that it could not meet its burden to prove the technological feasibility of a PEL set at that level. Id. HRG argues that OSHA's analysis of these three industries was flawed because, in considering whether existing plants could physically accommodate available technology, the Agency improperly incorporated an economic consideration into the technological analysis. Even if we were to conclude that technological feasibility requires OSHA to accept that employers may be forced to alter or abandon their physical plants, OSHA also found that ventilation systems could cause intolerable product loss. This concern squarely involved the suitability of available technology. Moreover, the 469 employees at issue were a minute portion of the 312,169 employees in operations where a 1μg/m3 PEL was not deemed feasible, and their exclusion from consideration would have been immaterial. We therefore will not disturb OSHA's technological feasibility analysis as it pertains to the chromium pigment, catalyst, and dye production industries.
HRG argues that OSHA's determination that a 1μg/m3 PEL was economically infeasible for the electroplating job shop industry was neither supported by substantial evidence nor adequately explained. Electroplating job shops are facilities that perform electroplating services for other persons or businesses. As discussed above, OSHA reached its infeasibility determination upon finding and explaining that costs of compliance would amount to 2.7 percent of revenues and 65 percent of profits, and that costs of compliance would be similar across various types of plating shops. On this analysis, OSHA concluded that the proposed 1 μg/m3 PEL would alter the competitive structure of the industry. 71 Fed.Reg. 10,301. HRG bases its argument on part of a single statement by OSHA that the costs of compliance might not be passed forward, particularly by older and less profitable segments of the industry. Id. at 10,301-02. HRG asserts that this statement derives from improper speculation that some marginal firms might suffer, and economic feasibility allows that certain marginal firms might fail. HRG paints an incomplete picture of OSHA's economic analysis. OSHA determined that the estimated costs to job shop electroplaters of 2.7% of revenues was more than the Agency had deemed economically feasible under previous health standards, and was well in excess of the sector's average annual nominal price increase of 1.6%. FEA at V-94. OSHA also determined that it would be unable to mitigate costs through longer phase-in times or a greater reliance on respirators, techniques that had been used in the past to address economic difficulties where costs might otherwise have been in excess of 2% of revenues. Id. OSHA further found that the costs for compliance would be approximately equal across different types of job shops. Factoring in these costs, OSHA stated that a price increase that would assure continued profitability for the entire industry would require almost tripling the annual nominal price increase. Id. (emphasis added). It is clear from the record that OSHA considered and explained how costs would affect the job shop electroplating industry as a whole, and was within its discretion to conclude that a 1 μg/m3 PEL would alter the competitive structure of the industry.