NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH (NIOSH) RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FOR CHANGES TO HAZARDOUS ORDERS

 

May 3, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Public Health Service

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

An average of 67 workers under 18 years of age die annually from occupational injuries, and an estimated 77,000 are treated in hospital emergency departments for nonfatal injuries.  The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), largely unchanged in decades, defines work activities prohibited for young workers through 28 Hazardous Orders (HOs) for nonagricultural and agricultural occupations.  The U.S. Department of Labor, NIOSH and others have identified the need to assess the adequacy of existing HOs to protect working youth.  Most recently, the following recommendation was made in the National Research Council/Institute of Medicine Report Protecting Youth at Work:

 

“The U.S. Department of Labor should undertake periodic reviews of its hazardous orders in order to eliminate outdated orders, strengthen inadequate orders, and develop additional orders to address new and emerging technologies and working conditions.  Changes to the hazardous orders should be based on periodic reviews by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of current workplace hazards and the adequacy of existing hazardous orders to address them.” [NRC/IOM 1998]

 

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) provided funds for NIOSH to develop such a report based on a review of data and the scientific literature.  Primary data sources used by NIOSH were the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, and the Current Population Survey.  Hundreds of scientific articles and reports were reviewed.  The report makes recommendations specific to HOs that define prohibited occupations.  The report does not address Child Labor Regulation No. 3 which sets hours restrictions and defines permissible work activities for 14- and 15-year-olds, nor statutory issues such as the minimum age for work in HOs and exemptions from the FLSA.

 

Recommendations in this report are consistent with the DOL commitment to facilitate meaningful employment and training opportunities while protecting youth from the most hazardous work activities.  Recommendations are driven by information on high-risk activities for all workers, not just patterns of fatalities and serious injuries among young workers.  The general rationale for recommending an HO is that the associated fatality rate be at least 10 per 100,000 workers, or twice the fatality rate for all U.S. workers.  The number and severity of nonfatal injuries are also considered, as well as research on health effects of workplace exposures.  In addition to making recommendations for revisions and additions to HOs, NIOSH makes recommendations regarding apprentice/student learner exemptions in nonagricultural occupations.  Exemptions are recommended in those cases where supervision and training could reasonably be expected to protect young workers from hazards on the job.

 

NIOSH found justification for all of the existing HOs.  Review of available data and scientific evidence found that work currently prohibited by HOs continues to pose risks for death, serious injury and disabling health conditions.  NIOSH proposes several types of revisions to HOs: better definition of prohibited activities, incorporation of associated legislative provisions, and in some cases, removal of current exemptions.  Additionally, NIOSH makes recommendations to expand several HOs to include similar work with comparable or greater risk.  In a couple of cases, NIOSH concluded that revisions of existing HOs may be warranted, to allow use of

 

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Executive Summary

 

 

currently prohibited equipment which appears to be associated with relatively minor injuries.  Tables 1 and 2 summarize recommendations for existing HOs in nonagricultural and agricultural occupations, respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Executive Summary

 

Table 1.  Summary of NIOSH Recommendations Pertaining to Existing Nonagricultural Occupation HOs

 

Existing Nonagricultural HO

Retain

Revise

Training

exemption

Specific recommendations

HO 1: Manufacturing or Storage Occupations Involving Explosives

 

    

     X

    

     n/a

 

Revise the definition to include the current ATF list of explosive materials.

HO 2:  Motor Vehicle Occupations

 

 

     X

     n/a

1) Incorporate provisions of the Drive for Teen Employment Act; 2) Provide guidance on “urgent, time-sensitive deliveries” and “incidental and occasional driving”; 3) Delete exemption for school bus driving.

HO 3: Coal Mine Occupations

     X

 

     n/a

 

 

HO 4: Logging and Sawmilling Occupations

 

 

 

     X

 

     n/a

1) Expand to cover similar work in operation of timber tracts, tree farms and forestry services; 2) Remove the current exemptions for construction work for living or administrative quarters.

HO 5: Power-Driven Woodworking Machines

 

     X

   Retain

Expand to include similar power-driven machines used to operate on materials other than wood.

HO 6: Occupations Involving Exposure to Radioactive Substances and to Ionizing Radiation

 

 

 

     X

 

     n/a

 

Revise to reflect current risks to youth for occupational radiation exposures.

 

HO 7: Power-driven Hoisting Apparatus Operations

 

 

     X

 

     n/a

1) Expand to cover repairing, servicing, disassembling and assisting in tasks being performed by the machine; 2) Expand to prohibit youth from riding on any part of a forklift as a passenger, and from working from forks, platforms, buckets, or cages attached to a moving or stationary forklift; 3) Expand to prohibit work from truck-mounted bucket or basket hoists, commonly termed “bucket trucks” or “cherry pickers”; 4) Expand to include commonly used manlifts that do not meet the current definition, specifically aerial platforms.

 

HO 8: Power-driven Metal Forming, Punching, and Shearing Machine Operations

 

 

     X

 

   Retain

 

Expand to include several types of metalworking machinery currently excluded from this HO, including milling, turning, grinding, and boring machines.

 

 

Existing Nonagricultural HO

 

Retain

 

Revise

Training Exemption

 

Specific Recommendations

 

 

HO 9: Occupations in Connection with Mining, Other than Coal

 

 

   

     X

    

     n/a

1) Expand to include all work performed in connection with petroleum and natural gas extraction; 2) Remove exemptions permitting repair and maintenance of roads, and work on track crews.

 

HO 10: Occupations in the Operation of Power-driven Meat-Processing Machines and Occupations Involving Slaughtering, Meat Packing or Processing, or Rendering

 

 

 

 

     X

 

Add partial exemption

1) Expand to prohibit work in all meats products manufacturing industries, including poultry slaughtering and processing; 2) Consider a revisionQ to allow use of meat and food slicers in retail, wholesale and service industries; 3) Allow apprentice/student learner exemptions in retail, wholesale or service industries.

HO 11:  Power-driven Bakery Machine Occupations

 

 

    

     X

    

     n/a

Consider a revision to allow the use of “counter-top models” of power-driven bakery machines.

 

HO 12: Power-driven Paper-Products Machine Occupations

 

 

   

     X

  

   Retain

1) Incorporate provisions of the Compactor and Baler Act; 2) Expand to include similar power-driven machines used to operate on materials other than paper products.

HO 13: Occupations Involved in the Manufacture of Brick, Tile, and Kindred Products

     X

 

    n/a

 

HO 14: Occupations in the Operation of Power-Driven Circular Saws, Band Saws, and Guillotine Shears

 

 

   

     X

 

   Retain

   partial

exemption

Revise definition to include other machines, such as chainsaws, which perform cutting and sawing functions through direct contact between the cutting surface and the material (the current definition is based on the presence of a continuous series of notches or jagged teeth).

HO 15: Occupations Involved in Wrecking, Demolition, and Shipbreaking Operations

    

     X

 

   

     n/a

 

HO 16: Occupations in Roofing Operations

 

     X

   Remove

1) Expand to include all work performed on roofs; 2) Remove the exemption for apprentices/student learners.

HO 17: Occupations in Excavation Operations

     X

 

   Remove

Remove the exemption for apprentices/student learners.

Executive Summary

 

Executive Summary

 

Table 2.  Summary of NIOSH Recommendations Pertaining to Existing Agricultural Occupation HOs

 

Existing Agricultural HO

 

Retain

 

Revise

 

                                                     Specific Recommendations

HO 1:  Operating a Tractor Over 20 PTO Horsepower or Connecting or Disconnecting an Implement or Any of Its Parts To or From Such a Tractor

 

   X

1) Revise to remove the 20 PTO (power take-off) horsepower threshold; 2) Revise exemption for 14-and 15-year-olds with tractor certification to require tractors to be equipped with a rollover protective structure (ROPS) and mandate the use of seatbelts.

HO 2: Operating or Assisting to Operate (including starting, stopping, adjusting, feeding or any other activity involving physical contact associated with the operation) any of the following machines:  corn picker, cotton picker, grain combine, hay mower, forage harvester, hay baler, potato digger, or mobile pea viner; feed grinder, crop dryer, forage blower, auger conveyor, or the unloading mechanism of a nongravity-type self-unloading wagon or trailer, or power post-hole digger, power post driver, or nonwalking-type rotary tiller

 

 

 

 

 

 

    X

Combine HO 2 and HO 3, and expand prohibition from lists of specific machines to machines that perform general functions (e.g. harvesting and threshing machinery; mowing machinery; plowing, planting and fertilizing machinery; other agricultural and garden machinery; excavating machinery; loaders; wood processing  machinery, such as wood chippers and debarkers; sawing machinery, including chainsaws; powered conveyors; and, mobile equipment, including forklifts).

HO 3: Operating or assisting to operate (including starting, stopping, adjusting, feeding, or any other activity involving physical contact associated with the operation) any of the following machines:  trencher or earthmoving equipment; fork lift; potato combine; power-driven circular, band, or chain saw

 

 

 

 

    X

See comments above pertaining to agricultural HO 2.

HO 4:  Working on a Farm in a Yard, Pen, or Stall Occupied By a: (i) Bull, boar, or stud horse maintained for breeding purposes; or (ii) Sow with suckling pigs, or cow with newborn calf (with umbilical cord present)

 

 

 

    X

 

 

HO 5: Felling, Bucking, Skidding, Loading or Unloading Timber with Butt Diameter of More than 6 Inches.

 

 

    X

Remove 6-inch diameter threshold.

 

Executive Summary

 

Existing Agricultural HO

 

Retain

 

Revise

 

                                                     Specific Recommendations

 

HO 6: Working from a Ladder or Scaffold (Painting, Repairing, or Building Structures, Pruning Trees, Picking Fruit, etc) at a Height of Over 20 Feet

 

 

 

    X

1) Expand to include work on roofs, on farm structures including silos, grain bins, windmills, and towers; and, on vehicles, machines, and implements; 2) Reduce the maximum height at which youth may work in these settings from 20 feet to 6 feet.

HO 7: Driving a Bus, Truck, or Automobile When Transporting Passengers, or Riding on a Tractor as a Passenger or Helper

 

 

 

    X

1) Expand to prohibit driving of all motor vehicles and off-road vehicles (including all-terrain vehicles), with or without passengers, on or off the highway; 2) Expand to prohibit work as an outside helper on a motor vehicle; 3) Retain the provision prohibiting riding on a tractor as a passenger or helper, but move it under Agricultural HO 1.

HO 8: Working Inside: A fruit, forage, or grain storage designed to retain an oxygen deficient or toxic atmosphere; an upright silo within 2 weeks after silage has been added or when a top unloading device is in operating position; a manure pit; a horizontal silo while operating a tractor for packing purposes

 

 

 

 

 

    X

Expand to prohibit all work inside (i) a fruit, forage, or grain storage, such as a silo or bin; (ii) a manure pit.

HO 9: Handling or Applying (including cleaning or decontaminating equipment, disposal or return of empty containers, or serving as a flagman for aircraft applying) Agricultural Chemicals Classified Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (as amended by Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972, 7 U.S.C. 136 et seq.) as Toxicity Category I, Identified by the Word “Danger” and/or “Poison” with Skull and Crossbones; or Toxicity Category II, Identified by the Word “Warning” on the Label