Updating OSHA Standards Based on National Consensus Standards; Signage

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA" or "the Agency") is issuing this direct final rule to update its general industry and construction signage standards by adding references to the latest versions of the American National Standards Institute ("ANSI") standards on specifications for accident prevention signs and tags, ANSI Z535.1-2006(R2011), Z535.2-2011 and Z535.5-2011. In this rulemaking, OSHA is retaining the existing references to the earlier ANSI standards, ANSI Z53.1-1967, Z35.1-1968 and Z35.2-1968, in its signage standards, thereby providing employers an option to comply with the updated or earlier standards. OSHA also is incorporating by reference Part VI of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices ("MUTCD"), 1988 Edition, Revision 3, into the incorporation-by- reference section of the construction standards having inadvertently omitted this edition of the MUTCD from this section during an earlier rulemaking, and amending citations in two provisions of the construction standards to show the correct incorporation-by-reference section. In addition, OSHA is publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking in today's Federal Register adding the same references.