The Department of Agriculture (USDA) pressed EPA to craft guidance on how its just-completed Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) formaldehyde assessment will drive strict workplace limits on the ubiquitous chemical, as part of an interagency review process where USDA and others also echoed employers’ persistent criticism of EPA’s analysis.
Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) standing toxicology committee are calling for new approaches to testing the dangers of human exposure to micro- and nano-plastics, particularly in aging veterans -- tests they say could lead to first-time occupational exposure limits for the materials.
Two employer attorneys say an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) recent decision partly scrapping an OSHA citation based on whether a worker killed in a 2020 accident had been standing in a recognized “danger zone” underlines the burden the agency faces to show specific evidence of industry practice to support such claims.
The AFL-CIO and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) are urging EPA to strengthen its proposed TSCA rule for n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) by banning more uses of the solvent and imposing tighter restrictions on continuing applications, saying the current version sidesteps the hierarchy of controls and will not adequately protect workers.
EPA has unveiled its long-awaited and controversial Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) formaldehyde assessment -- a pivotal factor in a pending TSCA evaluation of the chemical -- that generally retains conservative risk values that employers have long feared will lead to strict limits on workplace exposures.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has approved a set of highly contentious regulatory amendments to its fall-protection standard for residential construction workers in order to meet federal OSHA’s requirements for such rules, despite reluctance from the panelists and employers’ claims that current state practices are more protective.
United Airlines is asking the 7th Circuit to review an OSHA enforcement case where it has argued that its agreements with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its staff union limit its duty to implement certain hazard-prevention requirements under the OSH Act -- a claim an administrative law judge (ALJ) rejected earlier this year.
A federal appellate court has for a second time denied the AFL-CIO’s petition to intervene in litigation over TSCA limits on methylene chloride to defend the rule against industry challenges, appearing to guarantee that no environmental or labor group will be able to step in if the next administration stops defending the case or seeks to settle it.
The California government district that owns and manages the Golden Gate Bridge is suing OSHA over a Trump-era guidance letter that loosened its safety standard for scaffolding, calling it an “illegal and unjustified attempt to reduce the factor of safety for temporary scaffolding designs,” that contradicts the regulatory text.
The AFL-CIO is again seeking approval to intervene in litigation over EPA’s TSCA rule for methylene chloride to defend the policy, saying the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has set a “quite low” bar for the step by granting a parallel bid from industry, even after it also denied the union’s first request earlier this month.
Several state-level sheriffs’ associations are warning OSHA that its proposed health and safety standard for “emergency responders” did not properly consider the costs it would impose, particularly for smaller search and rescue (SAR) organizations, echoing objections that a host of local firefighting companies has raised against the rule.
EPA’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) has published a divided -- and often critical -- review of the draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde that calls for some significant changes to its risk calculations while stressing that the several agency offices reviewing the ubiquitous chemical should be working in concert.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has set a quick schedule to reconsider its decision upholding a National Marine Fisheries Commission (NMFS) rule after the Supreme Court vacated the court’s 2022 holding when it overturned the longstanding Chevron deference doctrine, setting up an early test of how lower courts will apply the new precedent.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has approved a bid from the American Chemistry Council (ACC) to defend portions of EPA’s rule setting worker-protection and other mandates for use of the solvent methylene chloride while denying a parallel request from the AFL-CIO, giving the industry group an equal role with EPA in the case.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is beginning a rulemaking process to toughen its enforcement policies by creating new citations for “enterprise-wide” and “egregious” violations, and substantially hiking potential monetary penalties on companies -- steps mandated by a 2021 state law but which the agency is only now preparing to implement.
OSHA is asking a federal district court to dismiss employer and trade associations’ challenge to its controversial rule allowing employee representatives to participate in enforcement “walkarounds” outside of their own work sites, arguing that the plaintiffs have shown no concrete harm from the new policy in addition to defending its legality.
Lawmakers on the House workforce protection subcommittee used a recent hearing to express competing arguments about OSHA’s recent slate of regulatory actions including its controversial final rule on worker representatives in enforcement walkarounds and pending proposed safety standards for heat danger and emergency-response workers.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is preparing to implement its first-time indoor heat worker-protection standards -- which generally require employers to implement new employee-safety measures when indoor temperatures reach 82 degrees -- after they formally took effect July 23, following an expedited review by the state’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL).
South Carolina is preparing to resume its challenge to OSHA’s mandate for state plans to match federal OSH Act penalty levels, after the Supreme Court eased the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) six-year deadline for suits against the federal government that the agency previously touted in a bid to dismiss the case.
Two Democratic committee chairs are floating an amendment to the chamber’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to reauthorize the lapsed Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard (CFATS) program for two years, after a parallel measure in the House failed to reach a floor vote.