Rule coming, at long last, on confined space in construction

As I recently wrote, one of the best ways OSHA could help improve safety would be to update its own regulations, some of which are decades out of date.

But there’s another serious problem: regulations that have never made it to the starting gate. An example is the final rule on confined spaces in construction. The rule has been a decade in the making, and OSHA said in a recent update to its regulatory agenda that it anticipates issuing the rule in July.

The general industry standard has never been extended to construction because of the unique circumstances at construction sites. While that is true, it is not a valid reason to take a decade to write a rule.