Daily News

The GOP-led House panel that has jurisdiction over occupational safety and health issues says it will continue scrutinizing federal OSHA’s oversight of state plan effectiveness, as well examining the level of stakeholder input on regulatory efforts, particularly from small businesses. GOP lawmakers are also touting steps they have already taken to address industry’s concerns with OSHA’s regulatory efforts.

Democrats, meanwhile, are slamming what they say is the GOP majority's lack of jobs legislation and the impact of other aspects of the committee's agenda.

The laundered industrial towel industry is blasting a recent study by a manufacturer of disposable shop towels that found workers who use reusable shop towels may be exposed to heavy metals at levels above federal limits by questioning the study sponsor's impartiality and the researchers' methodology and conclusions.

A key occupational safety group is floating the idea of  OSHA using the negotiated rulemaking process to draft its planned regulations to address infectious diseases in health care settings, though the organization has not staked out a position on whether OSHA should proceed with such a rule.

Industry sources are criticizing OSHA's contribution to the Labor Department's final plan for regulatory review that the White House mandated earlier this year, saying the agency's proposals do little to ease OSHA's regulatory burden and associated costs, and that the hazard communication (hazcom) rulemaking touted by the plan has been in the works for years. Organized labor is unhappy with the use of OSHA resources for the regulatory review effort.

OSHA and NIOSH are working on several prevention through design (PTD) fact sheets developed by a stakeholder construction alliance, with plans to issue the material as official agency documents, safety advocates say. Sources note that the documents would not be compulsory on their own, and legal barriers remain with respect to OSHA's jurisdiction over building design. Organized labor has expressed interest in exploring changes to the OSH Act to address the issue.

Occupational health and environmental activists are calling for more stringent waste export restrictions on used lead acid batteries (ULABs), citing a new study that suggests the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) tightening of lead air quality standards in 2008 resulted in a surge of U.S. shipments of batteries to Mexico for recycling due to weaker environmental and worker health requirements there.

NIOSH's reassessment of carcinogen policy could affect the research agency's plans to update hazard classification and recommended exposure limits (RELs) not only to address cancer but a wider variety of areas, a NIOSH official says. Meanwhile OSHA is in the midst of trying to update permissible exposure limits, and evolving REL policies could have an impact on the science that many stakeholders say is needed to improve OSHA standards.

A bill that would make significant changes to the Cal/OSHA Appeals Board process -- the bulk of them strongly opposed by industry -- is being held in committee until next year to give the panel time to consider a range of amendments, but has enough momentum to pass the legislature eventually, sources closely watching the process say.

A key public health organization is preparing to come out shortly with guidelines for state public health agencies to provide referrals to OSHA, sources say, as part of increased collaboration among the agency and states to boost targeting of safety and health hazards across the states.

Regulatory reform bills are likely to be a prime focus of Congress' attention following the August recess in light of the United States' credit downgrading, sources say, but questions remain about whether proposals to boost economic reviews of health and safety rules can win the support of the Senate or President Obama.

OSHA's decision to take the Office of Whistleblower Protection Programs (OWPP) out from under the enforcement directorate, establish a whistleblower programmatic identity and make a host of OWP administrative changes have drawn mixed reviews, with interest groups still concerned about bureaucratic inefficiency, and industry questioning the agency's failure to consult with management representatives during its exhaustive review of the program.

NIOSH continues to develop a list of what it says are hazardous drugs in health care settings, with the agency saying in a new article that the effort could help workers minimize exposure and reduce health risks. The effort comes as OSHA, NIOSH and the Joint Commission have begun warning employers about the risk to health care workers who deal with such drugs (see related blog) .

A recent study sponsored by a major manufacturer of disposable industrial wipes finds that workers who use reusable shop towels may be exposed to heavy metals at levels above state and federal risk limits, findings that come as the Environmental Protection Agency is facing pressure to finalize by the middle of next year a long-delayed rule on the disposal of industrial wipes and towels, although the wipes manufacturer says the timing of the study is coincidental.

Findings from a massive health survey recently launched by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) to identify potential health impacts from decades of historic water supply contamination at a Marine Corps base are expected to have broad application to contaminated sites throughout the country, particularly for the ubiquitous solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), ATSDR's top official said in a July 8 interview.

OSHA is in the final stages of drafting a rule on potential changes to its inspections policies for Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) sites, and still hopes to publish the final rule in September, an agency official told Inside OSHA Online. Stakeholders have been anxiously awaiting to see if OSHA will back off its controversial proposal to make it easier to inspect such sites, a proposed shift strongly opposed by industry.

OSHA's training grant program would be slashed under plans floated by some in Congress as lawmakers face pressure to cut federal spending as a result of the debt limit deal signed by the president Tuesday afternoon. Organized labor and public interest groups are slamming the training grant proposal, pushed by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) as part of a recent budget-cutting blueprint and expected to resurface as lawmakers scramble to implement spending caps mandated by the debt ceiling law.

OSHA has contacted state plans to seek information about injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2), ahead of the federal agency's effort to promulgate a nationwide standard requiring employers to develop such programs, sources told Inside OSHA Online. Among those contacted was Cal/OSHA, a source from California who is knowledgeable about the situation said, adding that at least one contact was made several months ago. The federal agency expressed interest in contacting “people who would talk about the state I2P2 and its impact on the workplace,” the source said.

OSHA is telling stakeholders it would most likely explore a vertical rule model in a potential rulemaking to control infectious disease hazards faced by health care workers, meaning that such regulations would address not just infectious agents but specific industry settings, such as hospitals or long-term care facilities.

OSHA has moved ahead with a project to identify what it characterizes as “emerging issues” that could require regulatory or enforcement attention based on known hazards and recognized risks, categorizing them on an internal wiki site called OSHAPedia for reference and data collection by agency officials. Among the leading hazards are areas such as worker fatigue, as well as more specific issues such as formaldehyde.

OSHA is leaning toward a “performance-based” model for its planned injury and illness prevention program (I2P2) rule and, at least for now, intends to include construction and maritime industries in the proposal, an OSHA regulatory official said Wednesday.

Still, there are as yet “no decisions made on the content or the scope,” William Perry, deputy director of the directorate of standards and guidance, told members of OSHA’s Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health during an I2P2 work group meeting in Washington.