Each year in the United States, tens of thousands of workers are made sick or die from occupational exposures to hazardous chemicals. Yet, the workplace exposure standards set by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for many of the thousands of chemicals workers use every day are out-of-date or inadequately protective. As part of the ongoing effort to protect workers from exposure to hazardous chemicals, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels will host a press conference on Oct. 24 to announce the launch of two new, Web-based resources. OSHA has created a toolkit that assists employers and workers in identifying and substituting safer chemicals to use in place of more hazardous ones. In addition, OSHA has developed an Annotated Occupational Exposure Limits table that provides accurate and up-to-date chemical information to employers who want to voluntarily adopt newer, more protective workplace exposure limits for those chemicals that are covered by outdated OSHA exposure standards.
