Daily News

OSHA stakeholders anticipate the Obama administration will beef up enforcement against employers with alleged health and safety violations in the Obama administration's second term, continuing the “new sheriff in town” posture of the agency that began in the early days of the takeover from the Bush administration. Health and safety advocates remain worried, however, that the agency will continue moving slowly on new standards.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is pointing to the Environmental Protection Agency's recent release of risk assessments for five commonly used chemicals to bolster the need for his bill to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing that under the current statute EPA has little authority to limit use of the chemicals should it conclude that they are dangerous to human health or the environment.

OSHA is seeking help from other parts of the administration on ways to streamline its process for accrediting Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL) for timeliness and effectiveness, after Congress' investigative arm blasted the agency's handling of the accreditation process.

OSHA's contentious regulatory effort to tackle combustible dust hazards has re-emerged on the agency's timetable for rulemaking after several months of being listed as a long-term action with no set date to move forward. Several other top agency priorities also appear to be on the track to move forward, but perhaps the most controversial – injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2) – is still languishing in the small-business review stage that the agency says commenced about a year ago.

The re-election of President Obama clears the way for OSHA to possibly complete some of its more ambitious regulatory initiatives such those covering injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2) and silica, while others are likely to remain stuck in lengthy review processes, experts tell Inside OSHA Online as they look ahead to developments in 2013.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) will be taking over the gavel of House Appropriations subcommittee that covers OSHA funding, according to congressional sources. Kingston comes into the committee from the chair rotation process.

Kingston, a 10-term congressman from the Savannah region, will chair the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education panel under the full Appropriations Committee.

OSHA appears to be ramping up efforts to exchange health and safety information with its overseas counterparts, with the most recent example being a trip to China by agency chief David Michaels. An official inside OSHA says the outreach effort between the OSHA and Chinese workplace safety and health officials was designed to “strengthen the relationship” between the U.S. and China.

OSHA's Office of Whistleblower Protection Programs (OWPP) has been spun off into its own directorate, reporting to the non-career deputy assistant secretary of OSHA, as part of a move to elevate the program, according to sources within the agency. Previously, the office reported directly to the OSHA chief and was housed within the assistant secretary's office. The change comes as OSHA continues exploring ways to improve the effectiveness of OWPP.

Whistleblower advocates say a new advisory panel set up to advise OSHA on whistleblower issues may bolster the agency's efforts to battle a flood of retaliatory moves by employers. One member of the panel tells Inside OSHA Online the committee provides an opportunity for a “fresh set of eyes” to evaluate OSHA's program.

OSHA has released a new interactive online tool to help protect workers exposed to cadmium, a key chemical of concern that has been a subject of discussion by stakeholders regarding OSHA permissible exposure limits. The new interactive online tool will assist employers in complying with OSHA’s cadmium standard, the agency says.

The Environmental Protection Agency is withdrawing its recent immediate final rule requiring the metals industry to submit certain health and safety data on the risks posed by cadmium, after an industry group threatened to sue over concerns that the measure was overly broad and did not set a clear standard for when industry should investigate potential risks.

Three key safety and health organizations are pressuring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate labor appropriations panel, to maintain steady funding for OSHA and NIOSH programs in the next spending measure that clears Congress, even as the government bumps up against the so-called “fiscal cliff” that would slash spending across the board.

A top OSHA official made it clear to agency advisors that OSHA intends to continue its recent trend of pushing corporate-wide settlement agreements (CSAs) designed to abate hazards across a company's multiple operations. The agency has signaled greater interest in such agreements under the Obama administration, and an industry source says that even though CSAs require more abatement efforts they generally help employers avoid costly repeat and willful citations.

OSHA is forging ahead with the fourth phase of its Standards Improvement Project (SIP) -- a long-term effort to clarify regulations, eliminate possible duplication and correct minor errors within regulatory text -- by seeking stakeholders' advice on which construction standards to tweak and also opening the door for suggestions on large-scale revisions affecting any sector that could be pursued separately.

A prestigious panel of independent research experts has concluded that OSHA's standard for limiting airborne lead exposures falls short of adequate protection for personnel at firing ranges, in a finding that could have wider implications for the agency's lead standard. The National Research Council of the National Academies carried out a comprehensive study of the issue at the request of the Defense Department. The study comes as OSHA explores a variety of options for updating its decades' old permissible exposure limits.

OSHA is signaling that it could take advantage of existing standards on personal protective equipment (PPE) and workplace sanitation in a new bid to ensure greater safety and health protections for women on construction sites, a key issue that an agency advisory group has pressed in recent years. A draft agency fact sheet and upcoming web page dedicated to the issue aim to make PPE and sanitation central concerns for employers.

A key advisory group to OSHA is pressuring the Labor Department to stand against a pair of proposals by the Obama administration to slash funding for NIOSH educational and agriculture programs, echoing calls from worker safety advocates to preserve the programs despite the tight fiscal environment.

In a rare expansion of federal OSHA authority, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has come out with a long-awaited proposed policy that calls for the two agencies to work in concert to protect crew members while aircraft are in operation. The proposal -- called for by a section of this year's FAA modernization bill -- supplants an FAA policy dating to 1975 that gave FAA sole jurisdiction over occupational safety and health conditions in aircraft. The new policy would give OSHA standards a role in safety conditions in the air.

Construction safety advocates have come up with a draft checklist for potential use by federal agencies in the procurement process to ensure that bidders demonstrate best safety and health practices before winning federal contracts. Washington sources tell Inside OSHA Online that union and advocacy groups collaborated on the draft checklist, which would score federal contract bidders in 14 areas of occupational safety and health, as part of a broader effort to leverage federal dollars to address safety and health concerns.

Industry officials and representatives of a risk assessment group reviewing the Environmental Protection Agency's cleanup policy related to trichloroethylene (TCE) are urging the agency to drop regulation of short-term exposure to the solvent, arguing in a recent meeting with agency officials that EPA's intent to protect against cardiac birth defects is based on flawed science. TCE has come up as a key chemical of concern for OSHA as it contemplates how to update permissible exposure limits.