Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 004 Hazard:

29 CFR 1926.1153(d)(2)(i): General. The employer shall assess the exposure of each employee who is or may reasonably be expected to be exposed to respirable crystalline silica at or above the action level in accordance with either the performance option in paragraph (d)(2)(ii) or the scheduled monitoring option in paragraph (d)(2)(iii) of this section. a. On or about February 13, 2019, at the worksite, employees cutting concrete using a circular saw with an abrasive blade and a shop vacuum to capture the resulting dust were over-exposed to silica dust at 1.6 times OSHA's Permissible Exposure Limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for an 8-hour time weighted average. The employer had not performed an initial exposure assessment of the job task to determine the employee's exposure. Exposure assessments can be based on personal breathing zone air samples or on the basis of any combination of air monitoring data or objective data sufficient to accurately characterize employee exposures to respirable crystalline silica.