Daily News

The sudden resignation of a U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) member has exposed deep divisions over both the controversial “safety case” approach that the board's chair is pushing for chemical catastrophe prevention as well as broader concerns over a top-heavy CSB structure that gives rank-and-file appointees less policy influence -- internal tensions detailed in an exclusive conversation Thursday (May 22) between departing CSB member Beth Rosenberg and Inside OSHA Online.

OSHA tells congressional investigators it agrees with strong recommendations in a newly issued report sought by Democrats that the agency step up interagency cooperation and data-sharing to help prevent chemical explosions like the disaster last year in West, TX, and also concurs with a need to reach out to the fertilizer industry on safety issues, but stops short of fully assuring the Government Accountability Office that it will move ahead on a rulemaking effort to cover ammonium nitrate hazards under its process safety standard.

NIOSH researchers have been closely following the issue of potential worker sensitization to nickel, particularly though dermal exposure, and the agency has published guidance on safe practices for working with nanoparticles in lab environments, an agency spokeswoman says, as a new report comes out purportedly demonstrating for the first time an actual case of worker illness resulting from overexposure to nickel nanoparticles.

OSHA chief David Michaels tells Inside OSHA Online that more employers throughout the country and their employees would benefit greatly if they negotiate union-backed health and safety programs much like the arrangement the agency reached through recent extensive negotiations with Republic Steel on a host of alleged violations cited at the steel company's operations, saying formal injury and illness prevention programs are of mutual benefit for all parties involved.

A member of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has told the White House she is resigning effective June, the board's chairman tells Inside OSHA Online while acknowledging there are differences of opinion among CSB members in some critical areas including the so-called “safety case” approach to preventing catastrophic chemical accidents but not directly tying Beth Rosenberg's resignation to the debate over how stringently the investigative board should push the controversial policy, which could someday affect recommendations to OSHA.

A pair of federally funded children's and farmworker groups are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen requirements in the agency's proposed revisions to the worker protection standards (WPS) by expanding buffer zones around fields where pesticides are sprayed, citing neurodevelopmental risks to children exposed to pesticides.

OSHA is exploring whether it can return to a 1990s-era enforcement stance under which the process safety management (PSM) standard applies to oil and gas production facilities – a posture that was voided after the petroleum industry argued the agency had not conducted the required economic feasibility analysis specific to production sites when it first formulated the rule.

OSHA will likely face new pressure to raise the profile of worker health concerns related to nanomaterials as researchers come out with a high-profile new study in a medical journal they say shows the first-ever case of direct harm to a worker from exposure to nanoparticles -- with worker health experts saying the issue needs greater attention even if a future regulatory effort proves elusive. The issue has long been on OSHA's radar screen but it remains unclear how the agency plans to tackle the concerns as nanomaterials rapidly develop.

Arizona's state OSHA plan has filed papers formally challenging OSHA's view that the program fails to meet minimum federal standards to protect workers from fall hazards -- likely setting up a protracted fight between the agencies with potential long-term implications for how state plans are defined as “at least as effective.” But the plan also says the issue may soon be moot because a new state law requires the state revert to federal requirements if OSHA formally rejects state-level policy changes.

Chemical safety investigators are calling on Washington state's OSHA plan to initiate a series of changes designed to beef up oversight of workplace equipment and safety procedures after they reached conclusions from a sweeping investigation of the Tesoro refinery accident that took seven lives and sparked uproar over safety conditions in the refining industry. The recommendations come as federal OSHA looks into processes involved in oil refineries and potential safety improvements.

Facing competing calls from industry and environmental justice advocates over how to strengthen plant safety, the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in order to take comment on whether or how to revise its accidental release prevention program, a move that suggests any changes to the program are likely a long way off. The action responds to the president's call last August for a new inter-agency workgroup, including OSHA, to recommend ways to improve plant safety.

A key construction safety advisory group to OSHA, in what is viewed as a rare move, has come out against an agency regulatory proposal by rejecting the agency's plan to remove the 2010 cranes and derricks standard's references to insulating links and proximity alarms as safety measures. The agency points out that the devices -- which are designed to head off work site electrocutions -- have failed to achieve testing lab approvals. But panel members suggest safe use of the devices can augment other protection measures and should be allowed.

OSHA and NIOSH have signed an agreement on scientific research that could potentially bolster future regulatory action, in what NIOSH chief John Howard tells Inside OSHA Online is at least partly in response to a report from congressional investigators two years ago saying the research and regulatory agencies should attempt to work more closely together.

Companies involved in the healthcare industry are warning EPA against disrupting the “reverse distribution” system currently used to dispose of outdated or unsaleable pharmaceuticals as the agency decides how federal waste regulations apply to the retail sector.

Cal/OSHA has started rolling out a new campaign to prevent heat illness in the state's workplaces by issuing its first high heat advisory of the year, pushing again on a high-profile issue that the agency has long argued sets it apart from many other states and federal OSHA in terms of the vigor in which it pursues enforcement on the issue.

A pair of senior Republican senators is grilling OSHA for highly specific levels of data on recent case outcomes in the OSHA whistleblower program -- which administers 21 federal anti-retaliation statutes on top of the OSH Act 11(c) section that aims to protect worker health and safety complainants -- as the agency strives to invigorate the program by pouring in additional resources and seeking expert advice from stakeholders on how to beef up enforcement efforts.

OSHA is floating a few potential major revisions to beryllium exposure standards, including up to a 95 percent cut to the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for the toxic metal and a host of engineering and exposure controls – but under two options considers leaving construction out of the scope of a new rule completely, and in one scenario making no changes at all. The various options are laid out in an agency document produced for an upcoming conference of OSHA advisors on construction-related issues.

Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA), chair of the Senate subcommittee that oversees OSHA, tells Inside OSHA Online there are several key changes to the OSH Act that would vastly improve protections against retaliation for private-sector workers who voice safety and health concerns, but Capitol Hill is a “complicated place” and he doesn't see actual legislation on the issue moving anytime soon. OSHA endorses revisions to OSH Act whistleblower provisions, such as instituting a longer statute of limitations, which agency chief David Michaels calls a “very serious” concern.

The Environmental Protection Agency is resisting industry charges that its landmark penalty for failing to disclose the results of a health and safety study was time-barred, arguing in a recently submitted brief that Congress clearly intended the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to define such violations as "continuing" and subject to daily penalties for each day the violation occurred -- a dispute that follows a similar case regarding OSHA's view of "continuing violations" of OSHA's recordkeeping rule.

OSHA chief David Michaels put two related regulatory concerns -- a pending rule to tighten controls on crystalline silica dust and the agency's worry about antiquated chemical permissible exposure limits -- at the centerpiece of a push on Friday (April 25) for tougher OSHA protections ahead of Workers Memorial Day, April 28, sounding alarms about what he calls a host of “silent killers” rampant in the workplace.