Daily News

The Senate appropriations committee has set aside funds for NIOSH to conduct a study of line speed safety for poultry workers, a move which follows a Department of Agriculture study regarding safety of inspectors. Union officials are indicating that the information, including repetitive stress data, is necessary to determine whether OSHA action is needed.

OSHA has given state plans 30 days to fix a slew of problems uncovered in a nearly year-long agency review of state occupational safety and health programs, signaling that at least one state, Hawaii, risks federal OSHA asserting control of its program, the agency indicated Tuesday. The problems uncovered by OSHA include “concerns about identification of hazards, proper classification of violations, proposed penalty levels and failure to follow up on violations to ensure that workplace safety and health problems are corrected,” OSHA chief David Michaels said.

State programs are pushing back against previously announced plans by federal OSHA to require states to adopt federal OSHA policies on penalty structures and emphasis programs, recently sending letters to OSHA chief David Michaels outlining concerns with the planned action.

As OSHA continues to face calls to draft a standard to stop power plants from using flammable gases to conduct “gas blows,” a pair of developments – an executive order by Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) banning the practice and a statement from a member of the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) on the issue – stepped up pressure on worker safety officials to address the issue. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a proponent of regulatory moves on the issue, praised Rell's order but decried the lack of federal OSHA guidelines and procedures for handling natural gas.

OSHA and NIOSH have joined forces to investigate and characterize possible workplace risks associated with nanotechnology, with a goal to recommend workplace safety measures, possibly incorporating control banding, that could be instituted by industry. NIOSH chief John Howard told Inside OSHA Online that his agency has tried to interest OSHA in the nanomaterial issue for quite a number of years, calling the technology an emerging risk but one that is not ready for the regulatory agenda. “I think it's very positive,” he said, referring to the agreement.

Worker advocates are renewing calls for Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to move the whistleblower protection program out of OSHA and establish it as an independent agency within the Labor Department, reacting to a new report by Congress' investigative arm that strongly criticizes OSHA's handling of the program. One of the groups may also take OSHA to court over its denial of a Freedom of Information Act request for internal OSHA survey results about the whistleblower program, a source with the group said.

OSHA signaled it has health and safety concerns relating to long work hours across many industry sectors and stopped short of committing to draft new regulations sought by worker advocacy groups limiting the hours resident physicians can work in a single week and in a single shift. As OSHA faces regulatory pressure, the professional medical organization that oversees all resident physician training is touting its newly updated voluntary standards addressing work hours.

The Government Accountability Office is charging that OSHA has yet to adequately respond to its criticism last year on the agency's embattled whistleblower program and has failed to make changes to the program a priority. GAO found that OSHA’s national office continues to have specific management problems, and asserted that there are still  issues with consistency and accountability in whistleblower activities across regional offices, as was outlined in the 2009 report.

OSHA is considering a multi-pronged approach for tackling chemical exposures in the workplace, including using a planned injury and illness prevention program rule as a vehicle to ensure compliance with safety measures, agency chief David Michaels told stakeholders this week.

Worker safety advocates are engaged in a grassroots effort to shore up support among lawmakers to include sweeping OSHA reforms as part of any mine safety bill that moves through Congress this year, sources say. A congressional Democratic source acknowledged that lawmakers are divided on the issue as including the OSHA language complicates efforts to get mine legislation passed.

Business interests and organized labor are at odds over a proposed OSHA regulation that would end broad exemptions from agency inspections for worksites participating in on-site consultation programs, with the proposed rule making it easier for the agency to conduct “critical inspections” as it deems necessary. Industry sources suggest the changes could gut the voluntary program, but union sources say the proposal simply clarifies OSHA's inspection authority on major issues of public interest, such as diacetyl and combustible dust.

The Small Business Administration is urging OSHA to take seriously industry's concerns that the agency's proposed fall protection standard goes too far by including a “general duty” type enforcement clause, and improperly opens the door to using the standard to address combustible dust. But union officials want OSHA to go a step further and explicitly link the standard to regulation of combustible dust.

A recent decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) in the Summit Contractors case bolsters OSHA's longstanding policy of holding an employer responsible for the activities of its subcontractors, but industry sources say there are still many issues yet to be litigated, particularly how OSHA defines “controlling employers” and “creating employers.” The review commission followed recent court precedent and in the process reversed its earlier position on the issue.

OSHA reveals in an internal memo that it found violations in roughly 50 percent of the inspections conducted under an injury and illness recordkeeping National Emphasis Program, which the agency has since put on hold, but the agency has not released specific details about the number or type of violations uncovered. OSHA told regional administrators and state plans in the memo, obtained by Inside OSHA Online, that agency officials will present alternatives to OSHA chief David Michaels on criteria for sites to be inspected under a future, modified NEP directive.

OSHA has signaled it may hone in on a small number of chemicals as part of its reinvigorated effort to update decades-old permissible exposure limits (PELs), asking stakeholders to nominate those substances they think warrant the highest levels of priority.

Cal/OSHA continues to seek numerous updates to its permissible exposure limits (PELs) with an advisory panel preparing to advise health regulators on a host of chemicals posing potential hazards at California worksites. California's Feasibility Advisory Committee (FAC) will meet next month to review health assessment documents for the following substances: trichloroethylene; wood dust in general, and western red cedar in particular; benzyl chloride; and 1,1,2,2 tetrabromoethane.

Workplace safety advocates are stepping up pressure on OSHA to issue a regulation banning the practice of cleaning natural gas power plant piping with fuel gas, after the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standards Council took action on the indoor purging of fuel gas pipes through an emergency code change.

Stakeholders say OSHA's new interim final rules on whistleblower protections provide advantages to employers by making burdens of proof more stringent on the complainant, but also offer whistleblowers an easier avenue to take their cases to court. OSHA published three rules Tuesday to implement provisions in statutes covering employer retaliation in the railroad, public transit, commercial motor carrier and consumer products industries.

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), along with key labor and worker safety groups, are increasingly looking to use EPA's environmental statutes to bolster occupational safety, including the proposal of worker protection measures as key provisions in bills to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's new chair Rafael Moure-Eraso told Inside OSHA in an exclusive interview that CSB is looking for increased funding to conduct its investigation into the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, as well as to take on more investigations to address a larger array of hazards.