Time for a Regulatory Revolution?

Greetings everyone and welcome to another edition of Mighty Line Minute! Glad to have you back! I recently had the opportunity to connect with Dave here at Mighty Line's Ohio headquarters. He inspired me to think deeper about the impact and immensity of today's EHS, engineering, construction and life-safety codes and standards. That conversation led me to question something that I hadn't considered: Might this be a good time to spark a regulatory revolution? Radical? Not really. Let me explain.

The nation's codes, standards, and regulations are updated on various schedules that incorporate the latest knowledge on safety, health, environmental, and material exposures. Additionally, there are global standards to consider. Standards include building materials for construction, and even the necessary static-dissipating properties of everything from shoes to flooring to plastics. For the built environment, standards ensure that building materials, engineering practices, and construction processes are consistent and regulated. This helps effect competitive bidding, local and regional regulatory compliance, and, importantly, occupant safety.

Of course, codes and standards should always be written and published with a focus on compliance, efficiency, and clarity. This means creating rules that are clearly written to ensure usability, effectiveness, and adherence to regulations.

So, why is it that so many of today's regulatory requirements feel like they're written by attorneys, for attorneys? Must we always rely on codes and standards experts to interpret verbose language just to achieve compliance?

Dave got me thinking more about how we might fast-track a significant improvement to today’s codes and standards - without waiting for the typical three- to seven-year regulatory development timelines. In other words, how can current codes and standards be streamlined and improved in rather short order?

It’s amazing how regulatory sausage is made. Whether it’s through ANSI, ASME, ASTM, UL, FM Global, NFPA, ICC, OSHA, DOT, WHMIS, GHS, UN, or HASAWA, or any other number of involved organizations. Each is unique. These processes involve experts, regulators, business entities, government agencies, and the public. They all work together to integrate the latest knowledge and experience into codes and standards that improve materials, EHS, the built environment, and even societal order.

However, text overmanagement often arises during standards development. This results in voluminous paragraphs and lengthy sentences that confuse both readers and enforcers. We are literally slaughtered by word count in today’s published standards. Business and industry face mountains of codes, standards, and regulations. And even those are further explained through additional text, books, interpretations, online discussions, and occasionally, face-to-face dialogue. As the collective pen produces more 'word salad,' today's readers are left to wade through a quagmire of confusion. In the meantime, the weight, thickness and word-counts associated with today's printed standards - if you can afford them - have grown tremendously. 

I'm not questioning the intent or purpose behind standards development, and admit there's immense good that is delivered by these processes. After all, codes, standards, and regulations are vital to society - especially in matters of safety, health, the environment, and in particular, life-safety. They're also key to keeping global industries competitive by pushing for a more level playing field among manufacturers and distributors.  

Let’s talk specifics. I easily reduced a 50-word regulatory paragraph to 38 words; a 60-word one to 46; and an 88-word paragraph to 62 words. Together, these 198 words were rewritten to 146 words that maintained regulatory accuracy, improved readability, and achieved a 26.3% reduction in word-count. OSHA very recently updated their 1910.1200 Hazard Communication Standard. Bear with me as I read their 88-word paragraph (e)(1):

"Employers shall develop, implement, and maintain at each workplace, a written hazard communication program which at least describes how the criteria specified in paragraphs (f), (g), and (h) of this section for labels and other forms of warning, safety data sheets, and employee information and training will be met, and which also includes the following: (1) A list of the hazardous chemicals known to be present using a product identifier that is referenced on the appropriate safety data sheet ( the list may be compiled for the workplace as a whole or for individual work areas); and (2) The methods the employer will use to inform employees of the hazards of non-routine tasks ( for example, the cleaning of reactor vessels), and the hazards associated with chemicals contained in unlabeled pipes in their work areas."

Whew! Now - here is that same content - written in only 62 words - a 36% word-count reduction!

"Employers shall create, implement, and maintain a written hazard communication program at each workplace. The program shall explain how labeling, safety data sheets (SDS), and employee training - per paragraphs (f), (g), and (h) - will be handled. It shall also include: (1) A list of known hazardous chemicals by product name, as listed on SDS’, covering the entire workplace or specific areas; and (2) Methods for informing employees about hazards involving non-routine tasks or processes, and chemicals in unlabeled pipes in their work areas."  

So, in summary, take a very hard look at how we can collectively improve every reader's knowledge and understanding of codes, standards and regulations. All it might take - as a first step - is to simply and conscientiously reduce the aggregate word counts by somewhere between 10 and 20 percent, especially where sentences or paragraphs exceed 25 words. 

So, what do you think?

Best wishes for a safe and enjoyable Spring, and as always, work hard, stay safe, and take time to be of help to others. Next, take a moment to visit MightyLineTape.com and discover new ways to improve safety and operational excellence in your workplace.

We'll see you soon, here, on the next edition of Mighty Line Minute!