Occupational Safety and Health Administration March 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Since 1973, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has granted permanent variances to a number of chimney- construction companies from the provisions of the OSHA standards that regulate boatswain's chairs and hoist towers, specifically paragraph (o)(3) of 29 CFR 1926.452 and paragraphs (c)(1) through (c)(4), (c)(8), (c)(13), (c)(14)(i), and (c)(16) of 29 CFR 1926.552. These variances use temporary personnel-hoisting systems to transport workers to and from worksites in a personnel cage while constructing tapered chimneys using formwork techniques and procedures. Recently, the Agency received applications from 15 employers for a variance addressing chimney and chimney-related construction that, like the previous variances, propose to use temporary personnel-hoisting systems to transport workers to and from worksites in a personnel cage. These variance applications, however, included conditions that address construction of chimneys and chimney-related structures using temporary hoisting systems and procedures in association with two different methods of construction (i.e., formwork and slip-form construction) and two different structural configurations (i.e., tapered and straight-barreled). OSHA consolidated these variance applications into a single application for publication in this Federal Register notice. OSHA invites the public to submit comments on this variance application to assist the Agency in determining whether to grant the companies a permanent variance based on the conditions specified in this application.