OSHA releases final rule on eye and face protection

Washington – OSHA has issued a final rule that revises requirements for face and eye protection for workers in general industry, construction and longshoring, as well as at shipyards and marine terminals.

The final rule incorporates the most recent national consensus standards approved by the American National Standards Institute and is intended to make sure employees use the most current face and eye protection, OSHA stated in the March 25 Federal Register.

The agency’s Eye and Face Protection Standards now refer to ANSI/ISEA Z87.1-2010, Occupational and Educational Personal Eye and Face Protection Devices, and have removed reference to the 1986 edition of the national consensus standard. OSHA is keeping the 1989 (R-1998) and 2003 versions of the ANSI standard.

Those same requirements have been included in OSHA’s construction standard, in which references to the 1968 version of the ANSI standard have been deleted.

The final rule is scheduled to go into effect April 25.

OSHA published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the March 13 Federal Register and received “no significant objections from commenters.” No further changes were made in the final rule.