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.