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OSHA faces a 90-day deadline to start collecting comments on possible gaps in the agency's process safety management (PSM) standard, as well as controversial exemptions to the rule for retail and commercial-grade operations, under a sweeping new executive order from President Obama. The order requires federal agencies to review chemical safety regulations and step up inter-agency coordination to prevent disasters like the recent explosion at the West, TX, fertilizer plant.

OSHA, in a final rule issued Friday (Aug. 2) to require federal agencies to report all injury and illness data among federal workers annually through the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is setting up a system of data collection for the public sector that in some ways reflects the approach it has taken to gathering comprehensive data on private work sites, experts on OSHA recordkeeping say.

OSHA and NIOSH have produced a joint hazard alert on 1-bromopropane (1-BP), a chemical used in furniture making, dry cleaning and degreasing that is suspected to cause nervous system damage in workers. OSHA does not have a specific standard limiting exposures to the chemical, but notes that employers are still required to address the issue.

The chemical has come up as a top substance of concern that stakeholders want OSHA to tackle as it considers updating workplace permissible exposure limits.

President Obama is ordering federal agencies including OSHA to review their existing chemical regulations in light of the disastrous fire and explosion this April at a West, TX, fertilizer processing plant that cost 15 lives and decimated the rural town. Safety agency and congressional probes of the event have concluded that the West facility fell through gaps in regulatory coverage of chemical plants that otherwise could have headed off the disaster (see related story).

The Obama administration's naming of a Democratic majority to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has experts on management-labor relations expecting unions to wield more leverage on the powerful dispute mediation panel. While the board is not often associated with OSHA disputes, labor officials point out that the board is responsible for ensuring that job health and safety concerns can be addressed through the bargaining process.

OSHA's planned regulations to reduce workplace exposures to crystalline silica dust are leading to friction with industry stakeholders -- not just over the contentious plan to lower the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for silica, but also because of strict monitoring and training requirements likely to accompany such a rule, according to industry sources, who also say the rule probably faces tough court challenges.

A key occupational health group has completed the transfer of its guidelines for workplace chemical exposure limits to a toxicology risk assessment group, in a move that a source familiar with the deal says will bolster development and updates of the guidelines.

Under the agreement, the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) transferred its Workplace Environmental Exposure Levels (WEELs) development to Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment under the Occupational Alliance for Risk Science initiative (TERA OARS).

A new report from the Labor Department's internal watchdog concludes that OSHA failed to spend nearly half the money DOL set aside from stimulus funds early in the Obama administration targeted for increased enforcement, but that the agency also exceeded program goals in terms of inspections and compliance assistance.

The Labor Department's newly minted leader is already facing a full-court press from worker health advocates to confront one of the thorniest regulatory issues that has daunted OSHA in recent decades -- how to adjust permissible exposure limits (PELs) for workplace chemicals using more updated science than when most of the compulsory caps were developed in the early 1970s.

Editor's note: Inside OSHA Online welcomes views from readers on this July 26 email from industry attorney Lawrence Halprin. For background, please see a recent story, “Chemical Safety Board Urges OSHA To Make Combustible Dust Top Priority.” Letters may be sent to ccole@iwpnews.com.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is pushing hard for OSHA to forge ahead on far-reaching standards tackling combustible dust hazards in general industry, saying the issue represents the board's “Most Wanted” regulations and top advocacy priority. The renewed pressure on OSHA comes as the agency targets this fall as the date to convene a small business review panel on the proposed rule.

Two new nominees by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have been reported favorably out of committee, but not without running into strong opposition from the labor panel's top Republican, who questioned “the ability of these two to set aside their pro-union advocacy past and act as neutral arbiters between employees and employers.”

A Washington think tank that leans toward pro-union policies lacerated the Obama administration on Monday (July 22) for the pace of occupational safety and health rules moving forward over the last five years, using a baseball metaphor to suggest the White House is on course for a “shutout” in getting vital regulations done. Worker advocates are particularly concerned about perceived lengthy delays in OSHA issuing a new silica standard, though the agency has said a proposal could be forthcoming this month.

Workplace health advocates are objecting to proposed bipartisan legislation to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) -- which the Environmental Protection Agency uses to regulate chemical manufacturing and imports -- for lacking specific worker protections. A sweeping TSCA reform bill, jointly authored by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), is currently at the committee level in the Senate.

A senior House Democrat has filed legislation to mandate that OSHA issue a safety standard to establish safe patient handling, mobility and injury prevention regulations, adding pressure at the federal level on an emerging issue where several state OSH programs are already making strides. While the bill's chances are slim in the GOP-controlled House, safety advocates say the measure is gaining prominence among key lawmakers and generating a higher profile in Congress for the patient handling issue.

Committee votes are scheduled Wednesday (July 24) on President Obama's two pending nominations to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Obama nominated two new members to the board after withdrawing two controversial nominees as part of a Senate deal to head off a showdown over filibusters.

Thomas Perez, the newly confirmed secretary of Labor, will almost certainly continue the tough enforcement action on workplace safety and health that has characterized the last several years under the Obama administration's OSHA, experts tell Inside OSHA Online. Organized labor also wants Perez to step up inter-agency enforcement actions by DOL against bad-actor employers, such as coordinated actions by OSHA and the Wage and Hour Division, which often deal with issues at the same work sites.

Health worker advocates are putting intense pressure on OSHA to expand its National Emphasis Program (NEP) on health care to include hospital inspections, in light of a scathing new report from Public Citizen blasting the level of federal action to prevent work injuries and illnesses in the health care sector overall. The advocates say extending the NEP inspection regime to hospitals is an immediate step the agency can take to confront the problem while longer-term, complex issues such as standard-setting move forward.

Senate Democrats added language to a new spending measure directing the Labor Department to release OSHA's planned regulations to cut down on crystalline silica exposures in the workplace, intensifying pressure on the Obama administration to issue the long-awaited rule. But an industry source points out that DOL's hands are tied by a continued White House review of the rule even as Democratic lawmakers want OSHA to move forward on the rule.

The U.S. Navy has produced a detailed plan to control beryllium exposures at its Fleet Readiness Center Southwest facility in Coronado, CA, in response to concerns by OSHA about workers in vicinity of the toxic metal. The Navy's blueprint for tackling the issue comes amid increasing calls by worker advocates for OSHA to crack down on beryllium exposures in general, and as the agency pursues a rulemaking on the subject.