9. Establish a federal insurance program so that Safety Engineers may obtain malpractice insurance (Errors and Omission Insurance); 10. Establish the same penalties for employees and employers who violate the Act. Why should an employer be fined if he purchases safety glasses, gives them to an employee and the employee takes them off so that the OSHA policeman will fine his employer and nothing will be done to the employee? There are a number of specific requirements contained in the OSHA regulations which should be either deleted or sharply changed. TANK LOCATIONS A large percentage of bulk plants in use today will not meet the current recommendations for distances from property lines and buildings. The spacing re quirements are based upon criteria designed to prevent the spread of a fire either from or to storage tanks. TANK ORIENTATION Aboveground horizontal tanks shall be parallel to nearest important structure. Since most plants were constructed when there was open property around the plant, compliance with this requirement was a moot point. Relocation of tanks in many instances would be impossible. TANK SPACING The distance between tanks is a provision for fire fighting and is so stated. VENTS Emergency vents are required to have a certified capacity and have this information stamped on the device. Probably 95% plus of all these vents in use today do not meet this requirement. The vents are designed to relieve pressure in tanks resulting from fire exposure. CORROSION PROTECTION This provision calls for corrosion protection whether or not tanks or piping are buried in the corrosive soils. Purpose of this is to prevent escape of liquid and resultant pollution or fire hazard potential. TANK SUPPORTS The protection of steel tank supports is for the purpose of preventing collapse under intense heat and the resultant probable rupture of the tank. This is a fire-fighting consideration. TANKS To require that all tanks be constructed according to the latest standards is just unrealistic. Improvements in standards are not usually made because the previous standard has become grossly inadequate but because of a desire for something better. FLOOD PROTECTION NFPA 30 cautions about hazards related to floating of tanks in floods. The requirement for taking these precautions in an undefined "area that may be subject to flooding." LOADING RACKS Because the loading rack has proven to be the most likely point for the start of a fire, distance from rack to tanks, property lines and buildings is in the interest of preventing the spread of a fire. Many plants built before the current requirements simply do not have space available to allow compliance. Once fire reaches spreading stage, employees would no longer be involved. Decision as to the extent of hazard should be made by fire authority. Each of the above requirements, as presently written, purports to be an aspect of employee safety. Since employees are not required or expected to fight fires other than through the use of portable extinguishers in the case of minor outbursts, it is clear that this is a false premise. Furthermore, in certain of the requirements, such as diking and corrosion protection, the major purpose of the regulations would appear to be protection of the environment. While commendable, this would not seem to fall within the jurisdiction of OSHA. Worse, it places the small businessman in the middle between two competing sets of state and federal bureaucracies. Increasingly, The Environmental Protection Agency and its state level counterparts are enacting regulations on the same subject matter. Frequently, there is direct conflict between the requirements of OSHA and the environmental regulations. It is our hope that you will request EPA to submit to you all of their current regulations, together with any that are proposed for the near future which would speak to the same subject matter as Section 1910.106 of the OSHA regulations. This concludes my remarks. I would like to thank you and your colleagues for the opportunity to appear before you. I want to commend you and encourage you to continue with your extremely important work in this field. Cost Reference $2.00 Air Moving & Conditioning Association, 30 West University Dr., 4.00 American Conference of Governmental Hygienists; 1014 Broadway, .35 American Lumber Standards Committee, Post Office Box 1554, 2.75 American National Standards Institute, 1430 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 3.25 Material hoists. 3.25 Scaffolding.. 4.00 Concrete construction and masonry work. 4.00 Industrial lighting. 1.50 A 12.1-1967. Floor and wall openings, railings and toe boards. 2.75 A 13.1-1956. A 14.1-1968. A 14.2-1956. A 14.3-1956. A 17.1-1965. A 17.2-1960. A 58.1-1955. Fixed ladders. Identification of piping systems. 2.00 Portable wood ladders. 4.00 Portable metal ladders. Elevators, dumbwaiters, and moving walks. 10.50 Elevators. 5. 25 National plumbing code. 6.00 Minimum design loads in buildings and other structures. 4.00 A 64.1-1968. Fixed industrial stairs. 2.25 A 90.1-1969. A 92.1-1971. A 92.2-1969. A 120.1-1970. B 7.1-1970. Mechanical refrigeration. 3.50 Construction, care and use of mechanical power presses. 6.00 Mechanical power.... 3.50 Conveyors, cableways and related equipment. 3.00 B 24.1-1963. Forging and hot metal stamping.. 4.25 Fuel gas piping. Mills and calendars in the rubber and plastics industries. 4.25 Jacks. 2.00 Power piping with addenda. 4.00 Petroleum refinery piping. 6.00 Refrigeration piping with addenda. 6.00 Powered industrial trucks. 4.50 API Std. 650.. API ASME 1951 Ed. ASAE R276. Code for unfired pressure vessels for petroleum liquids and gases. Emblem for identifying slow moving vehicles. Slow moving vehicle identification emblem. (2) 1.00 American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1950 Niles Ave., St. 1.00 Joseph, Mich. |