Trade groups and a chemical company suing EPA over its redone rule governing TSCA risk evaluations are divided on what bar the agency must clear to defend its new policy, teeing up a question that will shape how appellate judges decide whether the agency has properly justified its approach to measuring workplace risk, among other key issues.
A Missouri agriculture firm is appealing to federal circuit court an enforcement case where it argued OSHA lacks jurisdiction over fall-prevention in train loading -- an argument that an administrative law judge (ALJ) said is at odds with a nearly 30-year-old policy balancing the agency’s authority against that of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
Trade groups are asking a federal appeals court to hold that the reformed TSCA gave OSHA, not EPA, primary responsibility to regulate any “unreasonable risks” to workers from toxic substances, seeking to scrap the agency’s approach to chemical-specific rules that has focused primarily -- sometimes exclusively -- on workplace dangers.
Labor unions are urging California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) and its standards board to thoroughly consider potential dangers workers could face from increased use of autonomous vehicles (AVs), including through an advisory committee agency staff have proposed to help craft what would be a first-time rule for autonomous tractors in the agriculture sector.
Industry trade groups and individual companies are asking the 5th Circuit to scrap EPA’s rule governing methylene chloride for a litany of reasons, saying the agency ignored research on the chemical’s dangers, improperly refused to consider their workers’ use of protective gear and misapplied science to craft a strict workplace exposure limit, among other claims.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit is weighing an enforcement appeal about the bar employers must clear to show compliance with OSHA’s machine-guarding standard, including whether they can rely on evidence that their safety practices are in line with “industry custom” -- a claim that an attorney for the agency said at oral argument could “eviscerate the OSH Act” if judges back it.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says OSHA must do more to address musculoskeletal injuries and ergonomic hazards in warehouses and so-called “last-mile” delivery services as the e-commerce industry continues to rapidly expand, though the agency is only agreeing with some of its recommendations.
Unions and worker-safety advocates are asking the D.C. Circuit to hold that TSCA forbids the agency from considering workers’ use of personal protective equipment (PPE) when evaluating chemicals’ risks, saying its rule on the subject shows a “fundamental misunderstanding” of OSHA’s requirements for employers to provide protective gear.
OSHA chief Douglas Parker says the agency is seeking to adopt “a more strategic approach” to enforcement and compliance assistance for its safety standards on fall prevention and silica dust, including outreach to smaller residential construction projects, while touting a 20 percent year-to-year drop in falling deaths.
OSHA chief Douglas Parker says he is looking to employers’ comments to help fill gaps in OSHA’s data on workplace heat dangers and mitigation methods as the agency crafts a long-awaited rule on the subject, telling viewers on an Oct. 9 webinar that the wide scope of its proposed standard “raises lots of issues” that will require stakeholder input to resolve.
Vehicle manufacturers say EPA’s Trump-era evaluation of industrial and commercial uses of chrysotile asbestos overestimated exposures, cherry-picked data and used flawed science to find that that nearly all such applications pose “unreasonable risk” to workers, backing chemical-sector groups’ calls to scrap both the rule based on the review and the analysis itself.
Trade groups are pushing EPA to craft a “consistent approach” for setting de minimis exemptions in its TSCA risk management rulemakings, while also renewing pressure on the agency for more transparency on workplace exposure limits for the solvent 1-bromopropane (1-BP) in particular -- limits some say should have been crafted by OSHA instead.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed into law a pair of bills aimed at expanding worker safety at refineries and hospitals, as well as legislation requiring workplace first-aid kits to contain the opioid overdose medication naloxone hydrochloride.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill that sought to ensure workers compensation benefits for heat-related injuries in the agriculture sector, objecting to the prospect of linking California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) and the state’s workers compensation agency, while citing several existing programs that he says already protect employees from heat.
EPA’s response to comments on its final risk evaluation of the flame retardant tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) lays out arguments against requests from industry and environmental groups alike to significantly broaden the review or rework its conclusions, defending both the TSCA office’s analysis of TCEP and its approach to setting workplace exposure limits.
Chemical manufacturers say EPA’s landmark rule phasing out chrysotile asbestos uses -- largely over workplace dangers -- “usurps” OSHA’s statutory power to protect workers, amid broader arguments seeking to cabin EPA’s power to regulate existing chemicals under the reformed TSCA.
Unions representing industrial workers and firefighters, as well as a broad coalition of environmentalists and public-health advocates, are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to conclude that EPA’s landmark TSCA rule for chrysotile asbestos is unlawfully weak, arguing that the agency unjustifiably declined to regulate or even evaluate risks from several uses of the mineral.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is weighing whether to enact a bill unanimously backed by state legislators that would expand the state’s stringent petroleum refinery worker-safety standards to biorefineries and other facilities, in response to labor union concerns about a recent series of fires at renewable fuel production plants that caused serious injuries.
David Michaels, who led OSHA for nearly all of the Obama administration, says local authorities should issue their own workplace protections for heat rather than waiting for the federal agency to enact its proposed standard, noting that a final version is likely years away and probably would be scrapped under a second Trump administration.
A chemical firm trying to intervene in litigation over the deadlines for 22 overdue EPA risk evaluations of toxic substances says the agency and environmentalists are raising “straw man” arguments against its participation in the case in order to prevent it from extending the proposed 2024 settlement deadline for formaldehyde.