Masonry Magazine December 2006 Page. 50
News
# California Averts Statewide Dry Cutting Ban
Julie Trost, Executive Director
California Conference of Mason Contractor Associations
The California masonry industry dodged a bullet recently by working with stakeholders and SB 46 author, Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-San Fernando Valley), when Alarcon withdrew the bill in the state's Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on the last day of the 2005-06 legislative session.
In his statement, Alarcon said that the withdrawal was based on good faith discussions with Cal/OSHA and the opposition namely a construction industry coalition co-chaired by the California Conference of Mason Contractor Associations (CCMCA) and the California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors (CalPASC) to pursue the matter through regulatory channels. This was a cooperative effort to bring a worker safety issue to the appropriate arena by letting the regulatory process do its job based on sound evidence and practical solutions, without the legislature rushing a decision on how it should be done.
When SB 46 was introduced on Jan. 5, 2005, it was an innocuous-enough bill on workers' compensation reform and rate regulation it was not considered a critical threat to the masonry industry. However, on June 13, 2006, that all changed when the bill was amended to propose a statewide dry-cutting ban.
As amended, SB 46 prohibited the dry cutting or grinding of masonry materials except in instances where it was determined that the use of water was not feasible. The bill did not identify "feasible" conditions, nor did it identify who ultimately had the power to define "feasible" conditions.
Furthermore, SB 46 stated that if wet cutting was not feasible and dry cutting had to be performed, employers would be required to meet all of the following controls:
* use engineering and work practice controls, such as vacuums with high-efficiency particulate air filters or other dust control systems;
* perform dry cutting in a designated area away from other craftworkers;
* and provide employees with full-face respirators as part of a complete respiratory program.
San Francisco and New Jersey enacted similar measures, in May 2006 and December 2004 respectively, and were serving as the models for this new California standard that was being rushed through the legislative process with an Aug. 31 deadline.
CCMCA and CalPASC convened the first coalition meeting on July 12 with a handful of industry organizations and their contractor members and began to formulate a strategy and identify other potentially impacted trade groups. With little more than a month to kill SB 46, the modest July 12 coalition grew to become a veritable Who's Who of construction and business trade organizations. The coalition support, combined with the tremendous outreach of member contractors, suppliers and manufacturers, culminated in the withdrawal of this detrimental measure.
But the work is not over yet. In an Aug. 30 letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger, Alarcon asked the administration to direct Cal/OSHA to immediately convene an advisory committee and develop a standard addressing the dry cutting and grinding of masonry materials and its correlation to silica exposure. Furthermore, Alarcon indicated that, if progress on a silica standard is not made before the end of the 2007 legislative session, he will introduce another, similar bill.
We have now entered the next phase of this campaign; however, this time the issue of dry cutting and silica exposure will be handled in the appropriate arena Cal/OSHA with a more feasible timeline so that it can be dealt with under careful consideration with the input of all interested and affected parties. CCMCA and CalPASC will continue to be active participants throughout this process.
For more information, visit www.ccmca.org.
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