Daily News

The White House warned Friday (Feb. 8) that a budget sequester would cause deep cuts to OSHA and force the agency to pull its inspectors off the job “for some period of time.” The spending cuts, if allowed to kick in March 1, would lead to roughly 1,200 fewer inspections of the nation’s most dangerous workplaces, the administration says in a fact sheet highlighting the potential harmful effects of a sequester.

Cutting OSHA inspections would leave workers unprotected and could lead to an increase in worker fatality and injury rates, the White House says.

The Senate Judiciary Committee leadership has created a new subcommittee charged with oversight of federal agencies, including rulemaking and adjudication, as well as third-party enforcement of federal rights and weeding out government waste and abuse. The new subcommittee, to be chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), will be called the subcommittee on oversight, federal rights and agency action.

OSHA is seeking public input on proposed interim policies for its Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) program in the face of calls from congressional investigators that the accrediting process for testing labs be streamlined. Agency staff are re-examining several aspects of the NRTL program and may propose new or revised guidelines, with an upcoming public meeting serving as a forum to solicit input from stakeholders concerning specific issues related to the NRTL program, OSHA says in a Federal Register notice.

President Obama's call Tuesday (Feb. 5) for Congress to again temporarily delay the budget sequester set to kick in next month by passing a package of spending cuts and revenue raisers is scant on specifics, but the president said the mini-package should draw from the fiscal cliff offer he put on the table in December. With the situation still unresolved it's unclear how the potential cuts could affect OSHA. The president left it to Congress to decide how long and at what cost to delay the sequester, but said he hopes to put off any cuts until a federal budget can be worked out.

A Republican senator has filed legislation for the second year in a row that if passed would effectively force federal agencies to take further action to comply with an executive order from earlier in the Obama administration to weed out burdensome or duplicative regulations. The measure filed last year gained support from all Senate Republicans but no Democrats, according to a spokeswoman for bill sponsor Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS).

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering dropping its plan to consider arsenic's inhalation risks as part of its pending assessment of the metalloid's ingestion risks because the congressionally mandated National Research Council (NRC) panel peer-reviewing the analysis is tasked only with reviewing EPA's ingestion analysis and lacks expertise to review the inhalation data. Arsenic has come up as a key chemical of concern as OSHA explores updating workplace permissible exposure limits.

OSHA chief David Michaels says incentive programs to keep reported injuries low at work sites -- including employers using so-called rate-based incentives that reward workers depending on low reporting figures -- is a key concern for the agency as it continues efforts to better enforce whistleblower protection statutes. The agency previously detailed a controversial policy suggesting that such rate-based programs can effectively undermine workers' rights to voice concerns about workplace hazards.

Senate labor committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) did not specifically mention OSHA issues among the items he hopes to tackle before retiring from the Senate in 2014, but sources note that the 40-year congressional veteran has signaled concerns about the Obama administration's slow movement on rules that are high priorities for worker advocates.

OSHA is urging employers to protect their workers from carbon monoxide poisoning as the winter months pose increasing hazards from fuel-burning equipment and tools in buildings or semi-enclosed spaces, citing a recent New England case in which several warehouse workers became sick from exposure to carbon monoxide. A worker safety advocate says the alert could help OSHA establish employer recognition of the hazard, which in turn could bolster legal efforts by the agency to address the issue.

A key safety agency has found gaps in OSHA's process safety management (PSM) standard, suggesting a deadly blast in 2011 during a fireworks disposal project in Hawaii may have partly been a result of the standard not requiring a safety review of the work procedures. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) notes in an official report that the PSM standard lacks a mandate to review fireworks disposal, but does not directly make formal a recommendation to OSHA.

OSHA is demanding that Arizona follow federal policy regarding fall protection or risk facing disapproval of its state plan, agreeing with a complaint by safety engineers that a new state law laying out fall protection enforcement requirements fails to meet federal OSHA's more stringent requirements.

The Environmental Protection Agency is weighing last-minute changes to its draft guidance for assessing and remediating vapor intrusion at petroleum-contaminated sites after a panel of experts unanimously urged the agency to revert to less conservative criteria for screening out sites for continued investigation.

The contentious issue of whether health care workers should be required to receive influenza shots is shaping up to be even more of a lightning rod now that an early and severe flu season has kicked in, with reports of workers who refused the shots being fired or forced to wear surgical masks prompting new calls from union officials to put a stop to mandatory flu shot efforts. The debate comes amid heightening concern among the public about transmission of the virus.

Federal agencies should intensify efforts to identify how they would cut back spending if the sequestration goes into effect March 1, the White House Office of Management Budget told agencies this week, adding that agencies should use any flexibility to minimize impacts to their core missions and identify operational challenges that could raise life, safety or health concerns as they continue to plan for the across-the-board cuts.

A Hyatt hotel in San Francisco has reached a settlement with Cal/OSHA to resolve controversial ergonomics complaints by the housekeeping staff, in an agreement that rules out citations against the company for musculoskeletal hazards but which also requires the hotel to continue undergoing a job hazard analysis on site. The settlement clears up the last in a string of ergonomics complaints against Hyatt nationally that the company characterizes as an orchestrated effort by the union UNITE HERE as part of an organizing campaign.

At least two names to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Hilda Solis are floating within the occupational safety and health community – one a top advisor in the Clinton White House and former Labor Department official, the other a high-ranking union official – though it is unclear if they are being vetted by the White House. Washington sources also say it is becoming increasingly clear that OSHA chief David Michaels wants to stay on in the second Obama term – a decision that partly depends, however, on whom is chosen to head DOL.

Farmworker advocates, environmentalists and others say the Environmental Protection Agency has become increasingly vague on what it intends to propose in its long-stalled measure setting new pesticide safety standards for agricultural workers and applicators, sowing doubts on whether the plan will include strict approaches that officials had previously said they would propose.

Industry sources say the issue of when the Environmental Protection Agency's protective standards for vapor intrusion apply at contaminated sites and when levels set by OSHA are appropriate remains unclear after EPA addressed the issue in 2002 draft vapor intrusion guidance but not in a more recent draft, prompting one environmental attorney recently to urge EPA to clarify the issue in final guidance.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis' resignation Wednesday (Jan. 9) from the Labor Department's top post left the occupational safety and health community wondering who might take her place and what the change means for the future of OSHA in President Obama's second term. Names for a possible replacement to Solis have not been floating among Washington insiders like they have for other high-profile posts, and it was unclear if Solis' departure affects OSHA chief David Michaels, who to date has not indicated any plans to leave, Washington sources tell Inside OSHA Online.

Worker safety and health advocates are once again pressuring the White House and OSHA to proceed with a draft proposal for mandating injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2), though the hotly contested rule has still not undergone a small-business review that the agency has said started about a year ago. I2P2 and a rule addressing crystalline silica are two lightning-rod issues for advocates who suggest the White House has been dragging its feet in letting new health and safety regulations progress.