23-410. Development of standards and
rules
A. Safety and health standards and rules shall be formulated in the following
manner:
1. The division shall either propose adoption of national consensus standards or
federal standards or draft such rules as it considers necessary after conducting
sufficient investigations through the division's employees and through consultation with
the occupational safety and health advisory committee and other persons knowledgeable in
the business for which the standards or rules are being formulated.
2. Proposed standards or rules, or both, shall be submitted to the commission for
its approval. If the commission approves the proposed standards or rules, or both, it
shall promulgate them in accordance with the procedures established in title 41, chapter
6.
B. The division shall not propose standards or rules for products distributed or
used in interstate commerce which are different from federal standards for such products
unless such standards are required by compelling local conditions and do not unduly
burden interstate commerce.
C. Any standards or rules promulgated under this section shall prescribe the use of
labels or other appropriate forms of warning as are necessary to insure that employees
are apprised of all recognized hazards to which they are exposed, relevant symptoms and
appropriate emergency treatment and proper conditions and precautions of safe use or
exposure. Where appropriate such standards or rules shall also prescribe suitable
protective equipment and control or technological procedures to be used in connection
with such hazards and shall provide for monitoring or measuring employee exposure at such
locations and intervals and in such manner as may be necessary for the protection of
employees. In addition, where appropriate, any such standards or rules shall prescribe
the type and frequency of medical examinations or other tests which shall be made
available, by the employer or at his cost, to employees exposed to such hazards in order
to most effectively determine whether the health of such employees is adversely affected
by such exposure. Any standards or rules promulgated pursuant to this section shall
assure, as far as possible, that no employee will suffer material impairment of health or
functional capacity even if such employee has regular exposure to the hazard dealt with
by such standard for the period of his working life.
D. In case of conflict between standards and rules, the rules shall take
precedence.
E. Any person who may be adversely affected by a standard or rule issued under this
article may at any time prior to the sixtieth day after such standard or rule is
promulgated file a complaint challenging the validity of such standard or rule with the
superior court in the county in which the person resides or has his principal place of
business, for a judicial review of such standard or rule. The filing of such a complaint
shall not, unless otherwise ordered by the court, operate as a stay of the standard or
rule. The determinations of the commission shall be conclusive if supported by
substantial evidence in the record considered as a whole.
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