NIOSH is considering using the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies' tiered approaches for assessing and listing chemicals' cancer risks when setting workplace safety standards, though the chemical industry is objecting to calls by organized labor and health groups for the agency to follow EPA's risk assessment approach.
September 16, 2026
The House workforce protections chairman says GOP lawmakers are discussing at the staff level which OSHA matters to bring before the subcommittee, which intends to hold at least one hearing on OSHA in 2012. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) also tells Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interview that he is concerned about the agency pulling back on some Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) next fiscal year.
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The Environmental Protection Agency released Feb. 17 its long-delayed assessment of the non-cancer risks of the ubiquitous environmental contaminant dioxin, brushing aside a host of industry concerns that the agency's oral risk estimate will drive strict new regulatory requirements and will confuse consumers because it exceeds most Americans' exposure from their diet. OSHA does not regulate dioxin under its permissible exposure limits, but stakeholders mentioned dioxin among chemicals of concern in a 2010 web forum the agency held to gather information on updating exposure limits.
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Dozens of industry groups are banding together to urge White House officials to remove from OSHA's proposed hazard communication standard (HCS) provisions that would create an “unclassified hazards” category under the rule, which is designed to bring OSHA's existing standard in line with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of labeling and classifying chemicals.
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A key House Republican on workplace safety and health issues is backing Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nod in Michigan, where the congressman represents a district in the south central area of the state, and cites what he considers the former Massachusetts governor's understanding of the private sector. The Romney campaign has not answered a question about the candidate's views on OSHA-specific issues, but organized labor is criticizing Romney as the primary campaign heats up in the state.
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White House officials are again proposing to shutter two NIOSH programs -- Education and Research Centers (ERCs) and the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (AFF) Program -- but with a slight change in their rationale since first pushing the plan last year. Worker safety and health advocates are expressing dismay that the administration continues to press the idea, which they fought for the better part of last year.
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OSHA plans to publish three final standards in fiscal 2012 -- electric power, consultation agreements and confined spaces in construction -- and it continues to await White House clearance to publish a rule to align its hazard communication regulation with the Globally Harmonized System of classifying and labeling chemicals, the agency says.
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The Obama administration has proposed a slight increase in OSHA funding for fiscal year 2013 with the extra resources going to areas including whistleblower protection programs, modernizing data collection and regulatory support. But the agency also hopes to save money in other areas, including by consolidating regional offices. The administration has requested $680,000 more for OSHA than fiscal year 2012 enacted levels for a funding total of nearly $565.5 million.
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OSHA plans to maintain funding for Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) under the Obama administration's budget plan for the agency heading into the next fiscal year, but reduce federal compliance assistance costs overall to ensure state consultation funds are preserved, agency officials say. Among upcoming changes, OSHA says it will no longer offer the Corporate and Merit VPP program to new sites in fiscal 2013.
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A key advisory group to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) on national vaccination issues is urging the department to encourage the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to continue efforts to standardize the methodology used to measure health care personnel (HCP) influenza vaccination rates across settings. But the panel, in a Feb. 8 vote, stopped short of recommending that HHS impose new penalties to make sure hospitals comply.
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A major union representing metal workers has joined with the only U.S. producer of pure beryllium to propose a draft standard to OSHA that would, if the agency adopts the model, cut the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for the metal by 90 percent, as well as require feasible engineering controls to protect workers where beryllium dust or fume are generated, even if exposure levels are at or below the new PEL.
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An advisory panel to federal health officials has approved a controversial recommendation that health care employers consider a mandatory approach to influenza shots for their workers if necessary to achieve higher vaccination rate goals. The move comes amid heated debate on the issue and over organized labor's objections to the idea of HHS providing what they consider a license to health care facilities to fire workers who decline such vaccinations.
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The Environmental Protection Agency, in a bid to coordinate its requirements with an upcoming OSHA rule, appears to be taking its first steps toward implementing the United Nations' (U.N.) Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), a system intended to standardize chemicals' labels and safety sheets and warn workers of their potential hazards, but the warnings may conflict with some existing American standards.
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A federal advisory panel is discussing whether to recommend that the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) urge the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to step up their efforts to standardize methods of reporting health care worker influenza vaccination rates to a government-run database and impose stiff enough penalties to ensure hospitals comply.
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Unions and public health activists are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen worker protection provisions in a recently proposed rule governing nanomaterials, arguing that protections fall short of best practices. The effort comes as OSHA and NIOSH continue to study potential emerging workplace safety issues presented by nanotechnology.
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House Republicans are stepping up their attacks on President Obama's controversial recess appointments of three members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has been a lightning rod for GOP attacks over recent policy decisions that critics say are tilted toward organized labor. Meanwhile, the compliance deadline for a new NLRB workplace notice rule -- which Republicans argue would undermine other notices required by labor laws including the OSH Act -- has been extended as the legal process plays out.
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OSHA will release the draft regulatory text of its planned injury and illness prevention program (I2P2) rule in the second half of February, as part of the formal small business review process, an agency official told Inside OSHA Online, and in advance of that the agency is spelling out six basic tenets of what it envisions for I2P2.
The basic elements of I2P2, according to OSHA, are: management leadership; worker participation; hazard identification and assessment; hazard prevention and control; education and training; and program evaluation and improvement.
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OSHA will direct field offices to investigate whether coal slag abrasive manufacturers are complying with the hazard communication standard, due to concerns relayed to OSHA that beryllium in coal slag products is not being disclosed to end users, an agency official told Inside OSHA Online. The move follows a formal demand by a public interest group for the agency to step up enforcement of the standard.
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White House officials have decided they need more time to review OSHA's plan to update its hazard communication standard to cohere with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of classifying and labeling chemicals, extending their review beyond the standard three-month time frame as industry officials continue to voice concerns with OSHA's draft final rule. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is among the latest industry groups to sit down with White House Office of Management and Budget officials to express concerns over the rule's scope, having met with the office Jan.
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A key occupational health group will reconstitute a work group of some dozen experts on OSHA permissible exposure limits (PELs) to help identify potential approaches to updating the regulatory caps, an official familiar with the issue told Inside OSHA Online. OSHA's planned request for information (RFI) on PEL updates, which the agency says in its new regulatory agenda could be issued by August, has reinvigorated a years-old stakeholder push for coordinated efforts to address the problem, the official says.
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