Daily News

A long-running controversy over a Department of Agriculture rule that would allow poultry facilities to speed up their inspection lines has again garnered the attention of worker safety advocates who are concerned about potential ergonomics hazards related to line speeds. The rule, as it moves closer to being finalized, continues to draw fire from advocates who say the increased line speeds could lead to major increases in musculoskeletal injuries, as well as increase hazards that can result in lacerations and amputations.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a long-awaited rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that will require producers of cadmium or cadmium compounds to provide health and safety information on the toxic metal to the agency -- though it is unclear what further risk management actions the data will help support. Cadmium has come up as a key concern as OSHA struggles with how to update its decades-old permissible exposure limits.

A congressionally approved bill will close several judicially created loopholes that have made it difficult for government whistleblowers to bring successful cases as part of a broader measure that beefs up protections for federal workers complaining of retaliation by government employers, including OSHA, sources tell Inside OSHA Online. The bill's passage comes in the midst of OSHA's efforts to improve the effectiveness of its Office of Whistleblower Protection Programs in the face of critical reports from the government and whistleblower interest groups.

A key advisory group to OSHA is stepping up pressure on the agency, now that the elections are over, to move forward on an injury and illness prevention program (I2P2) rule, which has stalled within the agency. A top OSHA official told the group on Nov. 15 that the rule will “soon” move to the small business review stage.

Industry sources are criticizing elements of a continued OSHA campaign of warning retailers about the need for crowd management during sales events, saying a letter and fact sheet for companies from the agency could serve to bolster general duty clause cases in the absence of a specific standard addressing the issue. One attorney argues that if OSHA wants to address crowd control it should instead consider issuing a rule.

NIOSH plans to issue a proposal for public comment as soon as early 2013 on a new policy for classifying carcinogens, a top official says, adding that the research agency hopes to finalize the policy by sometime next year. The effort by NIOSH has potential implications for OSHA standard-setting down the road as the agency collects data on potential chemical carcinogenicity when setting compulsory permissible exposure limits.

Worker safety advocates called the U.S. government's $4.5 billion fine against BP Exploration and Production Inc. a “drop in the bucket” and “pathetic,” with one group pointing to the fine as it renewed its call for OSH Act reforms. The groups say the settlement over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico does little to act as a deterrent to potential bad actors, noting that an oil rig explosion in the gulf occurred just a day after the BP settlement was announced Thursday (Nov. 15).

An advisory panel to OSHA on national issues is scrutinizing an internal Labor Department evaluation of OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting (SST) program as a key agency effectiveness measure, with the results of the long-term study likely to provide the agency and public with metrics showing whether tight enforcement resources are being put to good use.

OSHA stakeholders in both industry and organized labor are coming out against a recommendation by the Labor Office of Inspector General (OIG) that OSHA expand its data collection to use data from work sites with 11 to 19 employees for enforcement purposes. The recommendation -- with which OSHA also disagrees -- comes out of a set of broad recommendations that OIG says would improve the agency's Site-Specific Targeting (SST) program.

A key organization of industrial hygienists says its members want OSHA to make long-awaited updates to workplace permissible exposure limits (PELs) and advance injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2) as central priorities over the next two years. An American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) survey of members also shows backing for inter-agency action by the feds to address emerging worker safety issues in the nanotechnology field, and also names hazard communication, combustible dust, silica and noise exposures as important topics.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is asking a federal judge to dismiss the American Chemistry Council's (ACC) lawsuit seeking disclosure of documents explaining how HHS staff decided to list formaldehyde in its most recent Report on Carcinogens (RoC).

OSHA watchers expect President Obama's win to unleash a much more aggressive OSHA regulatory and enforcement agenda than was the case under Obama's first term. With the presidential elections over, OSHA is particularly expected to push through its top regulatory priority, injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2), and continue expanding tougher enforcement programs such as the Severe Violator Enforcement Program. But OSHA likely will continue to face tough scrutiny from House Republicans, who retained their majority of the chamber.

A copper smelting company is urging the Supreme Court to review a federal appellate ruling that upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's sulfur dioxide (SO2) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), arguing that the decision conflicts with past high court precedent on how judges should determine if EPA has set a NAAQS at an unnecessarily stringent level. Sulfur dioxide has come up in stakeholder discussions about chemicals of concern for updating OSHA's permissible exposure limits.

OSHA observers expect wide-ranging impacts on the agency depending on the results of Tuesday's elections, with a Romney administration likely to cut back resources for enforcement and and dramatically slow OSHA's rulemaking agenda, and a re-elected President Obama expected to accelerate the agenda and perhaps move toward finalizing the agency's top regulatory priority, injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2). Also, congressional watchers are waiting to see how changes at the committee level could affect OSHA, especially the pending retirement of a key OSHA supporter, Rep.

The Labor Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) is urging OSHA to ramp up oversight of the agency's Management Accountability Program (MAP), which it put in place in the mid-2000s amid concerns from Congress' investigative arm about OSHA's ability to improve its oversight of agency programs. But OSHA says it has no comment on the OIG recommendations to beef up oversight.

House Republicans accuse the Obama administration of flouting the law by failing to produce a spring regulatory agenda setting out the agencies' upcoming rulemaking priorities, charging the White House is playing a “hide-and-seek” game with the American public. In a recent teleconference, Boris Bershteyn, the acting OIRA administrator, indicated that the administration was skipping the spring agenda altogether and proceeding with the fall agenda, according to a newly released statement from Republicans on the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

An investigation into a chemical fire in Indiana last month has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency and one of its contractors to take the additional precaution at hazardous waste cleanup sites of re-checking any highly hazardous chemical when its label classifies the waste differently than field testing, according to an EPA official involved in cleanups in EPA's Region V. The move comes as OSHA continues implementing a final rule revamping the country’s classification and labeling system for chemicals.

House Republicans are amping up pressure on the White House to explain, less than two weeks before the election, why the Obama administration has not released a spring 2012 unified regulatory agenda and want to know if the administration plans to post 'midnight' regulations just after the election. The move, by four Republican leaders on the House Judiciary and Oversight & Government Reform panels, follows demands just weeks ago from the committee with OSHA jurisdiction for the White House to explain the agenda delay.

Public Citizen argues in the newest report in its series of studies focused on construction deaths in the states that Washington state could save hundreds of millions of dollars from barring serious OSHA violators and insisting on bidders with strong safety records to obtain public contracts. Industry blasted the report as suggesting a back-door requirement on employers to roll out injury and illness prevention programs as a mandate for contracts, with one attorney saying the proposal would also end up costing the states huge sums in legal fees.

The California state OSHA plan's roll-out of new regulations mandating safe patient handling systems in acute care hospitals continues, with the Golden State implementing a new law that could serve as a model for efforts to tackle the issue in other states or at the federal level. A key health official at Cal/OSHA tells Inside OSHA Online there is “a lot of outreach” right now to inform hospital employers about the requirements.