PRESIDENT’S LETTER Martin Howard I hope that you have heard this term before and have begun the process of understanding what it means and how it is affecting your business. Believe me when I say that it IS going to affect your busi- ness going forward and none of us knows exactly to what extent. The NTCA has held seminars at Coverings, forums at TSP and pub- lished articles in TileLetter on this topic in the past year. Yet, it seems like we are just beginning to peel back the outer layers of the prover- bial onion when it comes to under- standing the regulation (29 CFR 1926.1153 Respirable Crystalline Silica), including “Table 1” – and what is NOT included in Table 1. Then we begin to see DOL issue “Standard Interpretations” and “Interim Enforcement Guidance” and it all gets very confusing. From the NTCA perspective and as a business owner, I urge you to take this law very seriously. There are many reasons, but none more important than you and your employee’s safety and wellbeing. Secondly, this law is going to have a significant financial impact on your business either in compliance costs or if you ignore it, in non- compliance costs. As an employer, you should educate yourself so that you can make the appropri- ate business decisions for your company and make sure your bids include costs to work in compli- ance. If you are an employee or craft worker you should do the same so that you are aware of the risks that you are taking with you long term health. Visit this site for more information: https:// www.osha.gov/dsg/topics/silica crystalline/ or http://bit.ly/2fI23os. On the non-compliance side, a non-serious OSHA penalty was increased in 2016 to $12,600. If that doesn’t get your attention, a repeat violation penalty could be as high as $126,000. At this point, based on the test- ing that we and others have done, I believe most tile installations can be done safely and in compli- ance with the newly imposed reg- ulations with proper engineered controls and tools. The one area that remains a concern is perform- ing circular cuts larger than 4” in diameter. If you have a proven solution for this, please email me. Respirable crystalline silica – get ready for the new OSHA regulations 22 TileLetter | January 2018