Daily News

Editor's Note: As of press time Tuesday the Senate had voted to proceed to a vote on Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with enough GOP votes to indicate the impasse over filibusters has likely been broken. Stay tuned for further coverage of the Perez nomination.

Massachusetts lawmakers are set to consider a bill that would extend coverage of OSHA standards to state workplaces, and a source closely following the legislation says the measure, while having fallen short of the necessary support in earlier sessions, has a chance of passage this year largely because of pressure from Gov. Deval Patrick (D) on workplace safety and health concerns.

Two senior House Democrats on Wednesday (July 10) ripped a group of major retailers for a safety alliance plan for Bangladesh garment factories the lawmakers say competes with, and falls short of, a global public/private sector initiative already launched.

Senate environment committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is urging states to review and tighten policies to ensure the safe storage of ammonium nitrate, saying the Environmental Protection Agency is not moving fast enough to strengthen safety measures after the explosion of ammonium nitrate stored at a fertilizer facility in West, TX, that killed 15 people in April.

OSHA hopes to forge ahead on long-term efforts to revise its chemical exposure standards to reflect newer scientific evidence by formally collecting data from stakeholders ahead of the next potential regulatory steps. Experts laud the agency's continued push on the issue but caution that there still is no clear path forward on the rulemaking front given the wide range of substances OSHA wants to address, and the thorny legal issues involved.

OSHA plans to propose by November a new rule on injury and illness recordkeeping that effectively would reverse the impact of a recent controversial federal court decision invalidating the Labor Department's legal position that the OSH Act statute of limitations continues as long as recording violations occur within the five-year reporting period. Industry attorneys tell Inside OSHA Online the move, unveiled in the administration's new regulatory agenda, could land the agency back in court.

Senate Republicans are signaling that GOP staff will closely examine the details of any potential injury and illness prevention program mandate that OSHA issues as a proposed rule. The agency, in the Labor Department's regulatory agenda released by the administration Wednesday (July 3), states its intention to go public with a proposal on the subject by January. A union official blasts anti-regulatory “fervor” among GOP leaders and the business lobby to any regulation that OSHA hopes to produce, saying no matter the details, the planned rule faces fierce opposition on Capitol Hill.

OSHA has reached a major settlement with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that stipulates enterprise-wide abatement of alleged electrical hazards faced by postal employees. The multimillion-dollar agreement marks a conclusion to the legal scuffle with the postal service that started in 2009 and has been litigated through the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC). But an industry attorney notes that the postal service, as a government entity, is far more likely to reach such large monetary and abatement settlements with the agency than are private businesses.

OSHA plans to take regulatory steps to address process safety management (PSM) issues surrounding the use and storage of reactive chemicals, along with potential hazards involving flammable liquids and spray finishing, according to a new regulatory agenda unveiled by the administration Wednesday (July 3). Regulators also say a proposed rule addressing crystalline silica hazards could come out as early as this month, and they are now on track for a January 2014 release of OSHA's long-awaited proposal to require an injury and illness prevention program.

OSHA has initiated an enforcement program in its Western region to protect workers in the automotive maintenance and repair industry from dangers related to automotive lifts -- with inspections targeted to car dealers, repair and maintenance shops, gas stations, and automotive parts, accessories and tire stores. A national industry group, saying injuries and fatalities are “relatively rare,” touts the industry's adherence to OSHA requirements as well as rigorous voluntary standards and safety practices.

An unusually wet harvest in the Midwest has safety professionals concerned about grain engulfment and other hazards inside grain handling facilities, and OSHA has launched an extensive educational campaign to warn employers and workers about the risks. The agency's latest effort continues an enforcement and informational push that started in 2010, though an industry attorney who specializes in grain handling issues says OSHA often broadly depicts the industry as irresponsible when most accidents are reported on small family operations outside OSHA's jurisdiction.

OSHA's recently rolled out initiative to tamp down on industrial exposures to isocyanates could signal that the agency wants to give greater weight to health concerns overall in its National Emphasis Programs (NEP), a former top standards official with the agency says. A manufacturing group also says industry is closely analyzing the new enforcement directive on isocyanate compounds.

Chemical safety experts say a closer look by OSHA at the processes under way at the West Fertilizer Co. in central Texas -- particularly under the agency's explosives and blasting agents standard at 29 CFR 1910.109 -- could have helped prevent the disastrous explosion at the chemical mixing plant in April. They also say better communication about the explosive hazards of ammonium nitrate to first responders may have better prepared local authorities for the blast that killed 15 people and caused massive property destruction in the rural community.

Persistent resource and staff shortages at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) are resulting in numerous investigations being disrupted as teams are pulled from one disaster site to another -- a growing problem highlighted by a series of chemical explosions in Texas and Louisiana in recent weeks that demand the board's attention, CSB Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso told Inside OSHA Online in an interview Thursday (June 27).

A key organization of safety experts is pressing lawmakers to increase funding for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) -- the lead agency that investigates industrial disasters -- citing recent resource-intensive operations that have put a strain on CSB's ability to deploy teams to incident sites. The push for higher funding levels comes as the safety board struggles with both resource and jurisdictional issues in investigating high-profile cases, including the April fire and explosion at a fertilizer plant that leveled a large swath of the community in West, TX.

OSHA has unveiled a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) targeting hazards from isocyanate exposure.

The agency said in a statement Tuesday (June 25) it will focus on workplaces in general, construction and maritime industries that use isocyanate compounds in an effort to reduce occupational illnesses and deaths.

Senate Republicans likely will attempt to add a policy rider to the upcoming Labor appropriations bill, blocking OSHA from carrying out a controversial new policy opening up inspection walkarounds to third parties including union representatives, a GOP source on Capitol Hill tells Inside OSHA Online.

OSHA's national office is telling regional offices to instruct field inspectors to check for possible violations of employer requirements to adequately provide exits and keep means of egress unlocked and free of obstacles. Industry says the ramped-up enforcement effort will almost certainly result in a spike of OSHA citations because of the relative ease with which the myriad regulations on exit routes can lead to violations.

An OSHA plan unveiled this month to revise accident prevention signage regulations to incorporate newer consensus standards crafted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) follows an effort over several years by industry to persuade the agency to update the rules in general industry and construction. OSHA on June 13 published a direct final rule in the Federal Register accepting the newer ANSI standards.

A major umbrella group representing worker advocates has joined a global boycott of Hyatt Hotels spearheaded by the hospitality workers union UNITE HERE, intensifying pressure on the hotel chain to ease workloads and provide control measures in particular for alleged ergonomic hazards. But the company touts its safety record and accuses the union of trumping up workplace safety issues to back its contested labor organizing campaign.