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The Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it will consult with OSHA, and also factor in data it has asked NIOSH to collect, when it implements an upcoming rule that unions say could lead to increased ergonomic, laceration and amputation hazards faced by poultry workers by allowing for increased poultry line speeds. NIOSH says it has agreed to conduct a health hazard evaluation (HHE) at a South Carolina poultry plant to study concerns related to line speeds, but unions are pressing for a much larger research project dedicated to the issue.

OSHA's recently announced corporate-wide settlement with a New England grocery store chain generated praise from worker safety advocates who say it demonstrates a much tougher posture by the agency in trying to require continued hazard abatement throughout a company's operations. Organized labor points to one aspect of the settlement as noteworthy -- unlike past agreements, the latest pact does not contain provisions calling for new talks between OSHA and the company over citations if new evidence of hazards arises.

Occupational health stakeholders suggest an executive order by President Obama to tighten chemical exposure levels for federal workers and on-site contractors -- as sought by a group of OSHA advisors -- could create momentum for OSHA to update permissible exposure limits (PELs) across the private sector. The call for the executive order comes as OSHA plans to publish a request for information (RFI) as early as August seeking advice from stakeholders on how to update decades-old PELs covering the private sector.

OSHA is modifying the supporting analyses of its proposed rule tackling silica hazards in response to White House concerns, but there is still no word on when the long-awaited proposal will be released for publication, a key official in the agency's standards directorate said Thursday (May 10).

OSHA has put together an internal work group to study the contentious issue of how state plans can meet the goal of “at least as effective” as federal OSHA -- the crucial test of whether they meet requirements for federal backing -- and the group is drafting 15 performance measures tied to the evaluation process, an agency official said Friday (May 11). Once the agency has decided on the performance measures it will formally seek stakeholder input on the draft measures through a public meeting, possibly as early as June, the official told an OSHA advisory panel.

Officials from the investigative arm of Congress in a newly released report call on OSHA to require employers that participate in cooperative efforts, including Voluntary Protection Programs and Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Programs, to meet criteria for safety incentive programs and other workplace safety policies.

OSHA has launched a new national push to make employers aware of heat exposure hazards in the workplace, which the agency says accounts for thousands of worker illnesses every year. While the agency is billing its new campaign as largely an educational drive, industry attorneys tell Inside OSHA Online they fully expect OSHA to ramp up enforcement using the OSH Act general duty clause -- making the point that OSHA already made outreach on heat illness the priority of an earlier campaign.

An OSHA advisory panel is urging Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to seek a presidential executive order calling for the “most protective” chemical exposure limits for federal workers -- as well as for contract workers for the government while they are on federal job sites -- to address concerns that OSHA’s permissible exposure limits (PELs) can potentially be outdated and inadequate.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), chairman of the House science committee's oversight panel, says Congress should seriously consider calls by federal small business advocates to eliminate the National Toxicology Program's (NTP) biennial Report on Carcinogens (RoC) if the process for listing substances as carcinogenic is not adequately reformed.

OSHA says it is “reviewing options” on how to proceed after a recent federal Appeals Court decision struck down the Labor Department’s legal position that it has authority to issue recordkeeping citations up to five years after a violation occurred if employer logs remain inaccurate. The agency says it will review and address outstanding recordkeeping citations “on a case-by-case basis.”

OSHA has teamed up with NIOSH and a key union-backed construction safety organization on a co-branded educational initiative to share information with employers and workers nationwide about fall hazards, identified as a top concern throughout the industry. The two agencies in recent years have been working to ramp up their collaboration on educational efforts, and the new initiative comes out of talks led by NIOSH’s National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) for the construction sector.

A key House Democrat on worker safety and health issues is urging the Obama administration to release OSHA's proposed rule tackling workplace silica hazards, which has been under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for nearly 15 months, much to the frustration of safety advocates. Rep.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is preparing to conduct a comprehensive review of the Environmental Protection Agency's controversial Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program and ongoing reforms after congressional appropriators approved the NAS' plan in lieu of reviewing two chemical assessments that lawmakers had originally sought.

A top House Republican staffer is suggesting that lawmakers are likely to continue scrutinizing the Environmental Protection Agency's influential chemical risk assessment program despite calls from current and former agency officials urging GOP lawmakers and industry to step back and let EPA implement reforms sought by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Advocates for victims of workplace safety and health hazards are expressing concern about two aspects of OSHA's newly issued directive outlining field procedures for agency personnel to communicate with families after a workplace fatality occurs, though they generally laud OSHA for putting the policy in writing. One group representing the families of victims says the agency does not go far enough in spelling out a family's “right to know” about investigation details, or in allowing victim representatives to attend post-incident meetings between OSHA and employers.

Experts on OSHA's rulemaking process told government investigators that Congress and the administration could take concrete legislative steps to improve the agency's regulatory procedures and get pressing occupational safety and health standards issued, such as making it easier to for OSHA to adopt voluntary consensus standards. Some, however, also suggested the agency itself has caused delays by shifting resources among different priorities and not setting out a clear agenda, and could benefit from a more formalized planning process.

OSHA and NIOSH support the only broad recommendation in a newly released report by congressional investigators on how to streamline OSHA's rulemaking activity -- chiefly, that the two agencies collaborate more closely on occupational hazard research -- but OSHA points out that in some cases those efforts are already under way. OSHA also backs a suggestion in the report to formalize the interagency relationship through a possible memorandum of understanding (MOU), and says working with NIOSH on risk assessments could help speed up rules.

A key Senate Democrat on worker safety and health issues says he will direct his staff to look into why Obama administration officials appear to be holding up proposed OSHA rules, such as the agency’s long-delayed plan to tackle workplace silica hazards, through lengthy review processes. Sen. Tom Harkin (IA), who chairs the full Senate labor panel, says he considers protracted reviews by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the central issue to emerge from a hearing by his committee Thursday (April 19) on how to streamline the agency’s standard-setting process.

OSHA has come out with a formal policy for how to communicate with victims' families after a workplace fatality, codifying what one source describes as a longtime stance of the agency to become more proactive in such exchanges but without revealing information that could jeopardize the legal underpinnings of any potential citations against the employer. The policy also reflects some of the priorities that OSHA supporters have been trying to push on Capitol Hill to provide more deference to victims' rights.

A key Senate panel will hold a rare OSHA-centric hearing to grill experts on what lawmakers refer to as the “toll” of delays in OSHA’s standard-setting process, armed with new data from Congress’ investigative arm that sources say was requested by Democrats in both chambers roughly 18 months ago. Worker advocates expect the upcoming report, from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), to bolster their arguments that the Obama administration should jump-start the OSHA rulemaking process.