Daily News

OSHA is lodging concern about the safety of water used in emergency eyewash stations, noting the possibility of numerous infections that can result from using contaminated water and raising the possibility that the issue will be increasingly scrutinized by compliance officers, and specifically citing voluntary industry standards as the most effective means of reducing the hazards.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is criticizing a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facility security program, faulting the agency's assessment of and enforcement against facilities that pose risks -- shortcomings that safety activists say should prod federal regulators to impose strict process safety requirements.

Criticism of the security program comes as OSHA studies potential changes to chemical safety regulation and faces pressure to embrace “inherently safer” technologies (see related coverage).

Information gleaned from OSHA's increased enforcement attention to tuberculosis (TB) during inspections of inpatient health facilities can be used to bolster the agency's envisioned new rule designed to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, OSHA chief David Michaels tells Inside OSHA Online.

Other federal response efforts to address transmissible diseases, including those targeting influenza and Ebola, will also be useful to the agency as it develops a proposed rule, he says.

Two nominees to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), including President Obama's designee for board chair, will head to the full Senate, lawmakers on the oversight panel for the agency voted unanimously Wednesday (July 29), possibly clearing a path for the troubled investigative board to move ahead on safety recommendations to OSHA that have languished for months.

A bill introduced several times in recent years by GOP lawmakers to create steep new hurdles for implementation of major rules from OSHA and other regulatory agencies -- by requiring proactive approval of the rules by Congress before they can take effect -- easily cleared the House on Tuesday (July 28) and could advance in the GOP-led Senate, though a White House veto threat in all likelihood dooms the legislation.

OSHA plans through a newly proposed rule -- which sources say will almost certainly be disputed -- to overcome a key federal appeals court decision three years ago that killed a longtime agency policy stance that inaccurate OSHA logs continued to violate recordkeeping regulations every day the records remained erroneous, continuing to trigger the six-month time limit on potential citations against the employer.

One of President Obama's nominees to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) going through Senate confirmation tells lawmakers she would balk at recommending a European-style “safety case” approach at chemical facilities without much more consultation with U.S. stakeholders than has occurred to date.

California state regulators are urging the feds to define all nanomaterials as new chemicals under a proposed federal data collection rule for nanoscale materials, arguing new reporting requirements are insufficient to protect the public, though producers are seeking exemptions from the reporting proposal. Worker health agencies continue to closely monitor and produce studies and recommendations regarding long-term occupational exposures to nano-size particles.

Some large-scale chemical distributors that once sidestepped OSHA process safety management (PSM) oversight because they technically qualified for a “retail exemption” under the rule could now be subject to PSM inspections and potential enforcement, with OSHA in a contentious move tightening its policy on where the exemption applies.

OSHA delivered a clear message to employers Wednesday (July 22) that it will aggressively enforce new worker hospitalization reporting rules by determining if employers willfully flouted the law and potentially hitting them with egregious citations, holding up a recent Texas case charging that a company deliberately dodged telling OSHA about a serious medical incident for several days, leading to the maximum proposed fine.

OSHA's newly produced enforcement policy for the 2012 update to hazard communication (hazcom) standards makes several strides in clarifying for both field staff and affected employers the circumstances under which alleged violations of the rule could be cited, sources say, but industries are concerned about detailed instructions in the guidance and what they consider new, unforeseen paperwork and compliance burdens.

OSHA has reversed an earlier policy that classified the use of kinesiology tape as an OSHA recordable medical treatment, deciding instead that it qualifies as first aid -- backing down after agreeing to the sports training industry's request to review information about how the medical tape is typically used. The interpretation makes a policy determination as to the use of elastic bandages and similar products as qualifying only as first aid.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and a coalition of public health groups are urging senators to take up the House-approved Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform bill, saying an alternative pending Senate TSCA bill contains too many problematic provisions including sweeping preemption of state chemicals programs. A section of the Senate version would ensure workers are classified as a population susceptible to toxic chemicals under the law.

NIOSH plans sometime this calendar year to introduce a new recommended exposure limit (REL) for the controversial chemical diacetyl, an agency official tells Inside OSHA Online, and at the same time is working on advisories for employers to control use of the chemical as well as substitutes used in food flavorings that have been deemed nearly or equally hazardous to worker health.

OSHA's recent decision to place the DuPont chemical company in its controversial Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) and slap the employer with new fines following a deadly leak last fall in Texas shows the agency's determination to use its chemical safety emphasis program to continually cite employers accused of widespread and potentially ongoing hazards.

A newly issued OSHA update to its enforcement guidelines for stopping the spread of tuberculosis (TB) in health care settings provides inspectors with new tools, including an expansion of what types of facilities are covered, to prevent the disease and further strengthens the agency's recently announced inspection emphasis in the hospital and residential care industries, one focus of which is heading off TB transmission.

The Labor Department says it will extend by 15 days the comment period on a hotly contested guidance aimed at carrying out a presidential order to screen potential government contractors for alleged labor law violations, including OSHA citation histories.

California's OSHA program will continue beefing up staffing levels and increasing overall inspection numbers, leveraging a 10 percent enforcement funding spike in the state's newly passed budget, in what Cal/OSHA chief Juliann Sum suggests could ameliorate concerns at the federal level about the state agency's pace of investigations.

OSHA has decided to delay full enforcement of the agency's recently issued confined spaces in construction rule, giving employers that are making “good faith” compliance efforts an extra 60 days before citing them under the new standard, in a partial accommodation of industry's request for more time to comply.

White House regulatory officials approved OSHA moving ahead with a proposed rule to reduce worker exposures to beryllium, returning the package of planned new regulations to the agency Tuesday (July 7).