Daily News

OSHA has produced new broad-based guidance for the health care sector in the event of a worldwide infectious disease outbreak that strongly suggests respirator use is superior to surgical masks in an airborne outbreak situation, but cautions that respirators must be properly fitted and meet N95 or better filter standards as well as NIOSH certification to be effective in OSHA's view.

A technical report from federal chemical safety investigators into February's Tesoro Refinery sulfuric acid spill that injured two workers in California concludes in part that many of the nation's chemical facilities need to beef up their process safety management (PSM) activities to avert such accidents, a recommendation aligned with their push for more federal regulation and OSHA oversight on the issue.

OSHA and NIOSH have jointly issued a “recommended practices” document on temporary worker safety and health that strongly emphasizes what the agencies view as the shared responsibilities of host employers and staffing agencies for ensuring regulatory compliance -- echoing a previously stated OSHA position that legal sources say could bolster the enforcement agency's inclination to cite both employers after an inspection in such situations.

OSHA is touting its recent successful exercise of the OSH Act general duty clause in the highly publicized action against SeaWorld after the mauling death of a killer whale trainer, after the company said in a statement to the investor community that it would not further attempt to appeal the citations in court. OSHA's victory in the case is seen as strengthening the agency's hand in more aggressively using the broad-encompassing clause in cases where it lacks a specific standard but clearly sees a hazard it believes the employer has a responsibility to abate.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) -- which under the Obama administration has often stirred controversy for taking policy positions that many in the employer community and the GOP regard as strongly biased in favor of union activism -- has launched a new initiative that directs field agents as they review allegations of unfair labor practices to consider referring complainants' safety and health concerns to OSHA, arguing that relaying such complaints is in line with helping enforce a broad range of federal labor laws.

The Environmental Protection Agency is moving ahead with plans to gather data on potential risks to workers and the public from lead paint during renovation and maintenance of public and commercial buildings (P&CBs) -- despite industry arguments that such action is unnecessary and duplicates OSHA rules -- and is asking the White House to approve an Information Collection Request (ICR) that could support a decision to regulate such activities.

NIOSH wants community health centers to collect occupational injury and illness data in their electronic medical records so the agency can use that data for research, a NIOSH official tells Inside OSHA Online.

A major construction industry trade group is gearing up to sue the Obama administration over a contentious presidential executive order that constrains federal agencies from hiring contractors with Labor Department enforcement histories, including alleged OSHA violations, a top official with the group tells Inside OSHA Online. The organization, the source says, also is considering legislative remedies to overcome the order, which critics say is an example of executive overreach.

OSHA regulators are envisioning a potential program-based approach to any eventual new regulations they attempt to promulgate in beefing up safety and health protections for emergency responders, which would mean a broad approach involving intensive planning and training – similar in some respects to the model the agency favors for broadly requiring injury and illness prevention programs across industry sectors.

NIOSH is asking the public for feedback on a draft document providing volumes of data on the worker health consequences of environmental tobacco smoke – a third iteration of the research agency's efforts to urge employers to clamp down on smoking in the workplace and which explores the implications of companies enforcing stringent policies regarding the issue. NIOSH plans to recommend that employers put strict tobacco-free requirements in place.

A key Washington advocacy group for stronger safety and health protections is holding up OSHA's proposed rule tackling crystalline silica exposures as one of 10 key federal rulemakings that the Obama administration should complete as the rules would purportedly not only save lives but carry greater net benefits than costs. The report rekindles a silica rulemaking debate that has been largely quiet in recent months after the close of several contentious weeks of public hearings on the issue.

OSHA is looking at revising its controversial electronic recordkeeping proposed rule to make it even tougher on employers by potentially mandating employer notifications to workers and strengthening whistleblower protections in response to some stakeholders' concerns that the proposed electronic posting of information might lead employers to retaliate against employees who report injuries and illnesses.

The West African Ebola virus outbreak and subsequent worries over transatlantic travel and spread of the disease could result in stepped-up calls on OSHA and state regulators to toughen their oversight of health sector workers' use of personal protective equipment (PPE), just as the SARS and H1N1 scares of recent years amplified calls for more stringent health care worker and patient protections. So far, U.S.

OSHA says a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) backs up OSHA's case that employers need to acclimatize workers to extremely hot weather conditions, which the agency is arguing as part of its annual campaign to pressure businesses to require ample water, rest and shade and in which it cited the OSH Act general duty clause 20 times over a two-year period in instances where it believed employers flouted the law.

A key chemical safety advisory agency is urging businesses to address “hot work” hazards arising from situations in which workers are potentially exposed to live ignition sources, saying welding or cutting activities near chemical storage tanks pose a huge disaster risk. The call for greater attention to hot work comes as the the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) simultaneously urges a comprehensive OSHA standard tackling combustible dust hazards (see related story).

An outside legal counsel to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) who served as President George W. Bush's ethics counsel in the White House tells Inside OSHA Online that Congress should pass legislation to let agencies like CSB selectively waive privilege in order to comply with document requests from inspectors general. He worries that the documents' submission to IGs could result in the the information being accessed by trial lawyers suing the government.

The Environmental Protection Agency inspector general, who has oversight of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), is one of 47 IGs who signed a letter to lawmakers raising strong concerns that several agencies allegedly tried to block the inspectors' investigative activities, and citing as a key example a long-running legal dispute with CSB leadership over a probe into accusations of whistleblower retaliation.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has placed a hold on President Obama's two pending nominees to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), threatening to sidetrack what would be a nearly complete CSB membership if the federal investigative board's management does not fully comply with a key request from the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General (OIG) for all documents related to whistleblower allegations.

A Labor Department spending measure recently unveiled by Senate appropriators strongly encourages OSHA to continue supporting its Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), a longtime compliance assistance initiative that has weathered controversy and drawn mixed support over the years from the agency, which earlier under Democratic leadership considered a private-sector funding model rather than permanent government funding for the program. Some worker advocates have criticized the program as a route away from stringent OSHA enforcement.

Senate Democrats attached language to a pending Labor/HHS funding bill that calls on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand a program that encourages health care worker flu vaccinations -- an issue that has been controversial with labor unions that do not want workers to be be pushed into taking flu shots, though a key union supports voluntary measures to increase flu vaccination rates.