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Services Available
Counseling and Enforcement Government regulations are often ambiguous in simply calling upon companies to meet generic workplace safety performance criteria, leaving the means of compliance to be devised by the employer. Keller and Heckman's extensive experience and expertise enables us to guide clients in developing practical, cost-effective and legally compliant solutions. We assist in the design, development, and implementation of risk management based programs that address the broad spectrum of workplace safety and health hazards found in general industry, mining operations and transportation. This includes everything from site-specific programs to global best practices for international companies. We also conduct both broad and targeted compliance audits, advise and support management during major workplace incidents and investigations, provide guidance during inspections, and litigate government enforcement actions before hearing officers, the commissions and the courts. Agency Rulemakings and Pre-Enforcement Court Challenges On behalf of one or more clients, we have participated in virtually every major OSHA rulemaking initiative over the past 20 years. We have also participated in numerous court challenges to final agency rules that we concluded were not reasonably necessary or appropriate to workplace safety and health - with very positive results for our clients, including: - Successful challenges to OSHA's 1989 permissible exposure limits (PELs) before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on behalf of several industry groups;
- Effective petitions for review of the OSHA Lock-Out/Tag-Out Standard and of the 1994 amendments to the OSHA personal protective equipment (PPE) standards to achieve reasonable limits in the scope of employers' obligations under those rules;
- Supporting the leading industry coalition in the successful effort before Congress to rescind OSHA's ill-advised Ergonomics Program Standard;
- Achieving major revisions to the OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Rule adopted in 2001; and
- On-going representation in the pending legal challenges to OSHA's recently issued hexavalent chromium rulemaking and recent revisions to OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard.
Keller and Heckman's forte in the rule development process lies in the ability of our attorneys and scientists to effectively synthesize the legal and technical merits of a client's case to achieve a desired result. We offer creative approaches for fulfilling regulatory goals. In a recent case, we negotiated an unprecedented compliance instruction (effectively a generic variance) from OSHA in connection with the design, operation and maintenance of a type of pressure vessel in wide use within the paper industry. Consensus Standards Frequently, our attorneys and technical staff are called upon to participate in the standards development activities of the American National Standards Institute, ASTM International, and other national and international consensus standards organizations. We currently serve as representatives on the United States delegation to the International Standards Organization (ISO) TC-229 on Nanotechnologies, ASTM's E34 (Occupational Health and Safety) and E56 (Nanotechnology) Committees, and the ANSI B155.1 Packaging Machinery Safety Committee. Cooperative Programs We assist companies in deciding whether to pursue OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) status and assess their ability to meet the resource needs to qualify for VPP Status. We counsel industries on the merits of participating as an OSHA Alliance Partner and help negotiate and implement Alliance agreements. Unique Experience and Qualifications Each member of our staff brings a unique perspective and understanding of the impact of government rules on our clients' operations. One of the partners was an industrial hygienist and safety and health manager in the paint industry, and in-house counsel to an asbestos-abatement company prior to joining the firm. Another one of our partners, worked in a ceramic tile manufacturing plant while earning a degree in chemical engineering. Our staff includes a former Virginia-OSHA industrial hygiene compliance officer, who previously was a safety and health manager for a manufacturer of metal containers. Many of our partners have formal educations in technical areas, including chemical engineering, industrial engineering and toxicology. We are supported by the firm's scientific staff, which has two certified toxicologists, and many other scientists with extensive training and experience in statistics, toxicology and risk assessment in the workplace safety and health arena. Our synergistic blend of in-house scientists and attorneys specializing in workplace safety and health allow us to address substantive issues both scientifically and legally. With hazard communication remaining one of the employment community's most significant challenges, we are positioned to assist clients in all aspects of compliance. This includes preparation of MSDS, labels, programs and training that meet the requirements of the OSHA and MSHA HazCom rules, California's Proposition 65, Canada's WHMIS program, the EU Dangerous Substances and Dangerous Preparations Directives, the REACH and GHS programs, and corresponding requirements in the Pacific Rim. With in-house toxicologists, industrial hygienists, DOT HazMat experts, and chemists, our expertise allows us to craft effective hazard communication materials that meet regulatory requirements world-wide.
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