Daily News

A Science Advisory Board (SAB) panel is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to include in its forthcoming oil spill research strategy provisions for spills of alcohol-based biofuels, which may require unique cleanup methods since the fuels do not react to dispersants and other conventional spill cleanup processes in the same way as petroleum hydrocarbons.

Industry and union officials met separately with White House officials in recent weeks to voice opposing positions on OSHA's draft crystalline silica rule. Industry officials raised general concerns about new requirements imposed by the rule, which is pending at the Office of Management and Budget, while union officials complained that a protracted OMB review is unnecessarily holding up needed occupational exposure limits.

Private sector interests are pressing Congress to probe OSHA's ability to evaluate the effectiveness of state plans, seeking assurance that states will continue to provide flexibility in regulatory enforcement, the chairman of the House workplace protections panel told Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interview June 16 shortly after he convened a hearing on the issue. OSHA has in recent months pressed state plans to adopt federal penalty structures and inspection emphasis programs.

A draft proposal for wide-ranging occupational safety and health reform floated on Capitol Hill by a key safety organization is viewed by some as a potential compromise among varied interests on both sides of the aisle, as it would increase criminal penalties for certain violations but also increase reliance on voluntary protection programs (VPP) and third-party audits.

OSHA's decision to launch a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) for primary metals industries has expert observers surmising that the agency is intensifying its efforts under OSHA chief David Michaels to target specific industries that continue to be areas of concern for labor and business stakeholders. Industry lawyers held back on criticizing the planned NEP, however, saying that working in primary metals represents some of the greatest risks to employees.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the employment and workplace safety subcommittee, reintroduced OSHA reform legislation Thursday (June 9), and after touting the bill on the Senate floor suggested to Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interviewthat the measure potentially could again be pursued side-by-side with mine safety legislation. When asked about her strategy for passing OSHA reforms, Murray responded, “My strategy is to work with the senators on the miner” safety bill.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), by forming a cooperative effort with the Canadian Council of Occupational Hygiene/Conseil Canadien d'Hygiene du Travail (CCOH), hopes to build a centralized resource for occupational health and safety professionals – but not, according to a source knowledgeable about the agreement, to create any new certifications or make policy changes on either side.

OSHA's revised recordkeeping National Emphasis Program (NEP) continues full-bore and will continue for about another year, agency chief David Michaels told Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interview. The NEP has been going on for roughly a year, in the middle of which the agency modified its targeting criteria.

“The NEP is scheduled to last for about two years,” Michaels said. The inspections are continuing, with about a year's worth of inspections to come, he said. “We have a quite a few more to do,” he said. “We're still analyzing the results.”

A measure to require Cal/OSHA Standards Board adoption of permissible exposure limits (PELs) based on California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) risk assessments has stalled in the state Assembly, sources say. Key bills backed by environmentalists to further address air emissions from pesticides and require battery manufacturers to adopt "product stewardship" programs failed to advance to either the Assembly or Senate floors by a legislative deadline and have been shelved for the year.

OSHA chief David Michaels told Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interview that the agency is making strenuous efforts to reach out to other public health agencies and government bodies, including at the state and local levels, in a bid to bolster efforts by OSHA field operations staff to identify hazards, require employers to abate problems and enforce workplace regulations. Michaels says such partnerships have shown to be productive in the past and the agency continues to seek cooperative ventures to boost information-sharing.

OSHA has made workplace violence a key new enforcement priority -- a move strongly backed by unions -- but some industry lawyers are voicing concern about the legal ramifications of the agency using the OSH Act’s general duty clause to address the issue, particularly in cases where the violence is created by a third party outside the employer’s control.

Two key House Democrats on worker safety and health issues are challenging the new owner of the mining company where the Upper Big Branch disaster occurred to proactively push for mine safety reforms, and are warning the company they will be watching closely to ensure a new corporate safety culture is instilled. The letter, signed by key Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, was sent to the chief executive officer of the coal company Alpha Natural Resources Inc., which is taking over Massey Energy.

NIOSH will face a roughly $6 million funding cut for the balance of fiscal year 2011, filtered down from reductions to its umbrella agency the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NIOSH chief John Howard told Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interview. But NIOSH potentially could reap some savings due to OSHA’s removal of a recordkeeping requirement as part of the Obama administration’s regulatory review, as the research agency will no longer be forced to expend money and personnel resources on maintaining and storing the OSHA-required records.

NIOSH chief John Howard says the agency is stepping up its cooperation with OSHA and also urging regulatory action in key areas where the research agency has centered its efforts -- including diacetyl and silica, two issues in which OSHA recently intensified its regulatory activities. Howard described several ways the agencies are working more closely, in an exclusive interview with Inside OSHA Online.

Industry groups and the Department of Defense (DOD) are urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clarify the situations where its proposed vapor intrusion assessment guidance would apply and where jurisdiction for regulating indoor air would fall to OSHA.

OSHA is issuing a final rule that clarifies agency regulations in areas including the respiratory protection standard, the definition of “potable water,” and requirements for employers to transmit exposure and medical records to NIOSH, among other changes in a broad effort to streamline rules, better align them other federal agencies and, according to federal officials, reduce reporting burdens on employers.

The posture of the Labor Department's Administrative Review Board (ARB) that is involved in whistleblower protection programs has shifted in recent months to lean more toward complainants, at a time when new appointees by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis have populated the board, experts who are paying close attention to the board findings have observed.

OSHA has launched an extensive survey of private sector employers' safety and health management practices and plans to use the findings from the 19,000 employers it hopes to survey to bolster future rulemaking, primarily its injury and illness prevention program rule (I2P2), but some in industry worry OSHA may simply use the results to back up its own policy agenda.

OSHA has formed an alliance with National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to find and fix potential OSHA violations, in what sources say is part of a broader effort on the agency's part to formally join forces with a specific worker intermediary organization to address hazards in a wide variety of industries. The parties are making clear, however, that the alliance is not intended for OSHA to endorse or promote any of the other party's products or services.

California business interests oppose a proposal by California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to eliminate the Cal/OSHA Standards Board and change the agency's rulemaking process to make it similar to the federal model, as part of an extensive budget revision plan. Industry suggests that getting rid of the standards board would transfer too much rulemaking authority to the state plan's administrative arm and potentially open the process to litigation, depending on how it's handled.