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.
OSHA attached language to its final rule on cranes and derricks formalizing its stance that the regulations do not supersede state and local laws and ordinances as long as those codes meet or exceed federal standards. The issue of preemption arose in a recent court case, in which a steel industry group is seeking to have New York City building codes thrown out on the basis of OSH Act preemption -- a claim that prodded the Labor Department to wade into the dispute. The Labor Department has filed an amicus brief in that case (see Inside OSHA, April 26).
OSHA says a $50.6 million settlement with BP Products North America reached Thursday provides an unprecedented level of oversight of BP's safety program, including stringent new incident reporting requirements, as part of a deal that comes just as the agency faces pressure on Capitol Hill to demand greater concessions in any settlements with so-called “problem companies.”
OSHA chief David Michaels is strengthening enforcement, refocusing workplace safety culture, improving collaboration within the agency -- as well as with other branches of government -- and modernizing injury and illness tracking, according to a recent letter to stakeholders outlining Department of Labor strategies to reform worker safety.
He also asserts that “regulation by shaming” may be an effective way for OSHA to ensure significant hazards are eliminated. Thus, OSHA plans to issue more “hard-hitting” press releases.
Lawmakers intensified their push for OSHA to take immediate regulatory steps to address workplace safety in the fuel gas industry as a stopgap while the agency potentially tackles the longer process of a final standard, following the agency's decision to issue one of its largest-ever fines and send out letters to the industry warning of enforcement activity instead of pursuing a regulation.