3-3108. Development of standards and rules

A. Safety and health standards and rules shall be formulated in the following manner:

1. The assistant director shall either propose adoption of national consensus standards or federal standards or draft such rules as he considers necessary after conducting sufficient investigations through the employees of the office and through consultation with the department advisory council, an ad hoc advisory committee if one is appointed and other persons knowledgeable in agriculture for which the standards or rules are being formulated

2. Proposed standards or rules, or both, shall be submitted to the director for his approval. If the director approves the proposed standards or rules, or both, he shall adopt them pursuant to title 41, chapter 6.

B. The assistant director shall not propose standards or rules for products distributed or used in interstate commerce which are different from federal standards for such products unless the standards are required by compelling local conditions and do not unduly burden interstate commerce.

C. Any standards or rules adopted under this section shall prescribe the use of labels or other appropriate forms of warning as are necessary to ensure that employees are apprised of all recognized hazards to which they are exposed, relevant symptoms, appropriate emergency treatment and proper conditions and precautions of safe use or exposure. If appropriate, the 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 to protect employees. In addition, if 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 adopted 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 take precedence.

E. A person who may be adversely affected by a standard or rule issued under this article at any time before the sixtieth day after the standard or rule is adopted may file a complaint challenging the validity of the 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 the standard or rule. The filing of a complaint, unless otherwise ordered by the court, does not operate as a stay of the standard or rule. The determinations of the director are conclusive if supported by substantial evidence in the record considered as a whole.