The Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), a group that advocates for strict health and safety protections, is renewing long-standing calls for OSHA to issue a national standard to protect workers from heat-related injuries and death, an effort that will likely take shape in the next administration.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) in a new report is touting the benefits of preventive inspections at petroleum refineries to prevent accidents and worker injuries, a finding that bolsters pending efforts by EPA and OSHA to strengthen their facility safety rules with new requirements for independent audits.
OSHA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review a draft final rule instituting new procedures for investigating complaints of retaliation against whistleblowers in the health care sector, a responsibility the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) delegated to the agency.
Industry and health advocates are at odds over what exposure methods EPA should use under the new federal toxics law to assess exposures to industrial chemicals, with industry urging the agency to use the “sentinel” approach that OSHA uses while environmentalists say they favor an “aggregate” approach that better reflects real-world risks.
A magistrate judge is recommending that a federal court limit OSHA's authority to inspect a poultry facility to circumstances surrounding a specific injury, potentially undercutting stepped up efforts by the agency and advocates to increase oversight over the sector.
OSHA has cited a New Jersey chemical facility for serious violations of its current Process Safety Management (PSM) regulations, including record-keeping and auditing violations, underscoring the agency's ongoing effort to strengthen its facility worker safety program under President Obama's executive order on improving industrial plant safety.
EPA has sent for White House review a proposed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section 6 rule to ban or restrict the sales or manufacture of trichloroethylene (TCE) to better protect workers and others, the first attempt by the agency to use the section to restrict a chemical since its failed effort to ban asbestos in 1991.
As EPA prepares to submit its final facility accident prevention rule for White House review, the agency is facing stepped-up calls from Republican attorneys general and some industry officials to withdraw the pending measure and overhaul it to ensure it will not exacerbate risks of terrorist attacks on industrial facilities.
A federal panel advising OSHA on how potential changes to the agency's facility worker protection rule might affect small businesses is opposing any agency mandate that facilities use strict safety measures, known as inherently safer technologies (IST), usually alternative chemicals or processes, and calling for additional analyses prior to any proposal.
OSHA has eased a controversial policy issued last year for determining whether a chemical is present in sufficient concentrations to warrant regulating a facility under the agency's process safety management (PSM) rule, after a legal settlement with the chemical industry that excludes hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid from the policy and postpones enforcement.
Industry plaintiffs challenging OSHA's new worker injury reporting rule are planning to expand their lawsuit to oppose the rule's reporting requirements in addition to seeking to block anti-retaliation provisions, an industry attorney says, adding that those retaliation provisions are ripe for claims they are interpretation or guidance rather than rule.
A law firm that frequently represents industry clients is warning that a recently proposed rule that seeks to align EPA requirements for new uses of industrial chemicals with strict OSHA measures may be at odds with the recently enacted Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that took effect earlier this year.
EPA's Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) is urging the agency to bolster proposed revisions to its facility accident prevention program to ensure citizens and first responders know the chemical hazards in their communities and how to respond to a release, backing advocates' criticism that the proposal does not go far enough to improve disclosure.
Appeals court judges have approved requests from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and cement producers to intervene in the complex litigation challenging OSHA's final rule strengthening its silica standards, despite labor union opposition that the groups' involvement would inappropriately expand issues in the case.
EPA has issued its first regulatory determinations under the reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), finding that four new chemicals are “not likely to present an unreasonable risk” to workers, the first set of affirmative safety findings the agency must now make before new substances may enter the marketplace under the new law.
OSHA and the New York State Workers' Compensation Board have reached an agreement to improve investigations and share data on workplace violations, signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that appears to advance OSHA's goal of better using data to promote compliance with labor laws given limited resources for inspections.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is postponing significant revisions to the list of chemicals covered under its industrial facility security program, focusing its forthcoming proposed rule on other priorities, which may include streamlining standards and creating a process for companies to remove chemicals from the program.
Top Democratic lawmakers are backing labor unions' petition urging OSHA to issue a workplace violence prevention standard that would require healthcare and social service employers to create violence prevention programs, arguing the rate of violence at the facilities is “high and rising,” and that current enforcement is ineffective.
OSHA is implementing controversial anti-retaliation provisions of its new injury reporting rule through a legal settlement with a major employer even as industry groups are seeking a speedy court ruling to block the provisions before they take effect next month -- though the agency last week delayed enforcement of the requirement until November.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is dropping plans for a long-stalled rule regulating the sale of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient used in explosives and as fertilizer, and is instead asking the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review substances that may be used in improvised explosives to support broader future oversight.