Cadmium medical removal and daily action-level exposure

August 11, 1994

MEMORANDUM FOR: EDWARD J. KASSAK ASSISTANT REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR
FEDERAL STATE OPERATIONS
REGION VII

FROM: RUTH E. McCULLY, DIRECTOR
OFFICE OF HEALTH COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE

SUBJECT: Interpretation on the Cadmium Standard with Respect
to Interpreting Air Sampling Data for Establishing Acceptable Work Areas for Medically Removed Workers

This is in response to your March 24 memorandum requesting an interpretation concerning how to interpret air sampling data for establishing acceptable work areas for medically removed workers for the Cadmium Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1027. This issue was raised by ASARCO, Inc. to the Denver Area Office. We apologize for the delay in our response.

In the company's request for an interpretation, they submitted personal air sampling data from its Litharge department. The company intends to establish this department as a clean work area for its medically removed cadmium workers. The company, in its letter to the Denver Area Office, stated that subsequent to the variance request submitted to OSHA in June 1993 one of the areas of the Litharge department had been shut down and thoroughly cleaned. The sampling data presented in the company's letter is from employee exposures occurring after the cadmium contamination had been removed from the Litharge department. The company's issue is that if sampled employee exposures from this work area shows statistically that at least 80% of the air sampling data is below the action level (AL), cadmium workers could be medically removed to this work area.

We have reviewed the request and have determined that the company's interpretation of the sampling data for establishing the Litharge department as a clean work area for medically removed cadmium workers is not consistent with the provision under 29 CFR 1910.1027(l) (ll)(iii) which states that "Where removal is based on any reason other than the employee's inability to wear a respirator, the employer shall remove the employee from work where exposure to cadmium is at or above the action level."

29 CFR 1910.1027(l)(11)(iii) is not based on the rationale that exposing a medically-removed employee at or above the AL for 20% of the time would be medically protective enough to prevent cadmium-induced illness. The intent of this provision is discussed in the preamble to the Cadmium standard. OSHA states that "In most cases in which a worker is removed for medical reasons, the standard provides for removal from work having an exposure to cadmium at or above the 2.5 g/m³ action level on any day. This limitation on the level of cadmium to which a removed worker can be exposed was selected based on three reasons:

1.

To assure that the removed worker would not be exposed to cadmium at a level high enough to further increase the risk to his or her health;

2.

To assure that the level of cadmium to which the removed worker might be exposed would be low enough to facilitate a net decrease in the employee's body burden of cadmium with the aim of restoring normal levels of cadmium in the measured compartments of the body, so that the employee could be returned to his or her former job status; and,

3.

Where cadmium-induced disease or dysfunction has already occurred, to minimize further progression of the existing condition."

This provision requires the employer to provide medically-removed cadmium workers the fullest protection possible to prevent further cadmium-induced illness from occupational exposures. This means that these workers can only be removed to those work areas where the employer can ensure that their exposures are below the AL on any day. From the employer's air sampling data of worker exposures in the Litharge department, the employer has shown that medically removed cadmium workers could be exposed at or above the AL on any day and would not be provided the protection necessary to prevent further cadmium-induced illness.

[Earlier internal memorandum and company correspondence reproduced on OSHA page; omitted here.]