Oct 5 2015
The United Steelworkers (USW) and Materion Corporation today jointly applauded the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for issuing a proposed beryllium standard to better protect beryllium workers.
Materion initiated a dialogue with the United Steelworkers several years ago, which resulted in reaching an understanding on the elements of a model occupational health standard for beryllium which we jointly shared with OSHA. Our collaborative process put worker protection first while providing a positive and economically beneficial result for workers, customers, government, and the beryllium-producing and fabricating industries. This approach demonstrates industry and labor can collaborate to better protect workers, protect jobs and serves as a guide for OSHA to consider in preparing future standards regarding all materials.
Materion has invested substantially in acquiring new scientific knowledge on how to best protect our workers and customers' employees from the potential health effects of beryllium. As a research partner with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for more than 17 years, Materion has embraced an open dialogue on beryllium worker health and safety. From the research results, Materion built an effective beryllium health and safety program, which the company has disseminated worldwide via www.berylliumsafety.com.
Richard J. Hipple, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We will participate in the final standard development process by contributing our scientific knowledge and our research-to-practice experiences. We are interested in assessing how the proposed standard aligns with the model standard that we jointly submitted to OSHA. We sincerely desire that the final standard be promulgated in the shortest possible time and we stand ready to assist OSHA in this regard."
Materion is the only U.S. producer of pure beryllium metal, and accounts for well over half of the beryllium alloys and compounds produced in the United States and worldwide. Materion said it will assist its customers and end users of the products that it manufactures to comply with the new beryllium standard so that the public and all users continue to benefit from the numerous applications of beryllium-containing materials that drive innovation and improve the world.
Headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, Materion Corporation, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, supplies highly engineered advanced enabling materials to global markets. Products include precious and non-precious specialty metals, inorganic chemicals and powders, specialty coatings, specialty engineered beryllium alloys, beryllium and beryllium composites, and engineered clad and plated metal systems.