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ADOSH's free consultation or a private consultant: which fits?

This page explains what the rules and common practice call for. Every site is different, and what a survey or a filing needs at your facility is something we work out with you after we see it.

Arizona employers have access to a state-run consultation program that sends a consultant to your site and includes exposure monitoring for your own workers, at no charge. This is not a checklist visit. Qualified consultants collect real samples, and the service is free.

The program is run by ADOSH, the state OSHA plan, and for a good share of the people reading this it is the right first call. This page covers what the program provides, where its limits are, and when hiring a private firm is the better fit.

What ADOSH consultation provides

A free on-site visit. The program is federally funded and state-run, and it is separate from the enforcement side of ADOSH.

Real sampling. The program includes industrial hygiene services, so you get air sampling and noise measurement, not only a walkthrough and a list of missing labels.

No citations for hazards you correct promptly. The consultation visit does not lead to penalties. You and the consultant agree on a time frame, and the hazards identified are to be corrected within it.

A written report that is not sent to enforcement. The federal rule governing these visits restricts the state from sharing the consultation report, and the report does not go to ADOSH's enforcement side as a routine matter.

Read the whole rule, though. It goes on to say the state may disclose the contents of the report when OSHA's standard on access to employee exposure and medical records, or another OSHA rule, requires it. The air and noise results in that report are employee exposure records, and workers have a right of access to them under the records access standard.

The accurate picture, then, is that the report is kept from enforcement as long as you correct what is found. It is not kept from your own workers or their union.

→ Who has access to exposure and medical records

For a small shop that suspects a silica or noise problem and wants an answer with no citation attached, this combination is hard to beat.

You do not have to work this out alone.Ron Fleming has done this work himself since 1993. We come to your plant, sample the air, and tell you what you need and what you do not. See if we are the right fit. No cost.·More about air monitoring surveys

Three limits to know first

1. It is aimed at certain employers, and you may not be one of them.

The program is aimed at smaller businesses in higher-hazard industries. The federal rules for the program state that purpose and set the order of priority that follows from it, and consultation staff allocate their limited resources on that basis.

In practice, a 400-person aerospace supplier or a large manufacturer with many sites is low priority. You may wait, you may get only part of the work you asked for, or you may be told the program is not a fit. That is the program working as designed, not a failure of it.

2. Confidentiality has four exceptions, and the records access standard sits beside them.

The protection for the report is real, but it is not absolute. The federal rule names four exceptions:

Situation Rule What happens
The consultant finds an imminent danger and the employer fails to act immediately 1908.6(f)(1) Referred to enforcement
A serious hazard is not corrected within the agreed time frame 1908.6(f)(4) Referred to enforcement
Inspection deferral 1908.7(b)(1) Information from the consultation is used in the deferral process
Recognition and exemption program 1908.7(b)(4) Information from the consultation is used to administer the program

Read the first two together. Confidentiality protects the finding, on the condition that you act on it. If a consultant you invited in finds a serious hazard, you agree on a correction date and you then miss that date, the protection is lifted.

Apart from all four exceptions, the monitoring results themselves are employee exposure records under OSHA's records access standard, and the last sentence of the confidentiality rule preserves that right. Current and former workers can obtain the results. A recognized or certified union automatically counts as the workers' representative for exposure records and needs no written authorization. Plan on your workforce being able to see the numbers.

That is a fair trade, but it is also a commitment, and you should know you are making it before the visit, not after.

3. The visit is designed as consultation, not as evidence.

The consultation report is built to help you correct hazards. It is not built to serve as the written record in a disputed matter, which could be any of these:

The sampling plan, the number of samples, the documentation behind each sample and the layout of the report all reflect the goal of correcting hazards. You also do not control the schedule, the scope of the work or the turnaround on results, and you cannot direct the work at the exact question your attorney needs answered.

→ How to read an industrial hygiene report

Which one fits your situation

Your situation The right choice
Small or mid-size Arizona employer, higher-hazard industry, no monitoring data at all ADOSH consultation. Start here
You suspect a problem and want to find out with no citation attached to the answer ADOSH consultation. The visit leads to no penalties, and the report is not sent to enforcement
Limited budget, willing to commit to correcting what is found ADOSH consultation
Already cited, in an open enforcement case Private. Consultation is not the tool for documenting abatement in a disputed case
A lawsuit, an insurance dispute or a pending claim Private, and involve your attorney in planning the work
Large employer, or outside the kind of industry the program is aimed at Private, because the program puts you at low priority
You need defined work done on a fixed date, such as a customer audit, a shutdown window or a plant startup Private. You are buying control of the schedule
Sites in several states that need the same methods used at each one Private. State consultation programs differ
You need exposure groups characterized well enough for statistical analysis, not a quick compliance check Private. Different design, more samples

→ Similar exposure groups: how workers are grouped for sampling · → Where we work

The honest summary

If you are a 30-person Arizona machine shop with no data and a nagging concern about your grinding room, call ADOSH consultation first. It is free, it will not cite you, the report is not sent to enforcement, and it may fully answer your question. We would rather you did that than pay us for the same information.

Come to us when you need something the program is not built to deliver:

These are different products, bought for different reasons, and knowing which one fits your situation is most of the decision.

→ Using objective data in place of new monitoring · → Noise surveys · → Air monitoring surveys

Tell us what you need. We'll say if ADOSH is the better fit

Ron Fleming has done this work himself since 1993. You talk directly to the person who does the job. No account managers. No call center. Our prices are well below the competition. Tell us what is going on and we will send a written scope of work and a price, at no cost.

Talk with us. No cost.

References

The regulations and standards behind this page, with links to the official text, so you can check the source yourself.

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