Crystalline Silica Rulemaking Likely To Provoke Legal Challenges From All Sides, Experts Predict

OSHA's planned rulemaking to establish new standards limiting crystalline silica exposure -- a proposal the agency just recently sent to the White House for preliminary review -- will almost certainly lead to lengthy legal challenges, whether from industries concerned about the new restrictions or from labor unions contending that the agency has not afforded a high enough level of protection, sources in both camps told Inside OSHA Online. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is reviewing the proposed rule, which has been years in the making and which OSHA recently pegged as one of its hig