Daily News

Nine congressional Republicans and one Democrat are pressing EPA to loosen an exposure limit in its draft TSCA risk evaluation of formaldehyde, arguing that adopting the proposed figure would result in a “de facto ban” of the ubiquitous chemical despite the agency’s statements that it will consider costs and practicability in any rule based on the review.

OSHA has released the final version of its controversial rule to allow worker representatives to take part in enforcement “walkaround” inspections even if they are not employed at the site under review, making only minimal changes from the 2023 proposal while laying out counterarguments to employers’ claims that the new policy is illegal or unconstitutional.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) final rule updating 50-year-old standards for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) has cleared White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review, keeping it on track for the agency’s planned April release following years of pressure by unions and their allies.

OSHA has extended the comment deadline for its proposed health and safety standards for “emergency responders” by 45 days, after dozens of state and local fire departments, as well as at least one employer-side law firm, sought more time to determine how the rule’s sweeping list of new and amended mandates would affect them or their clients.

A coalition of labor groups alongside environmentalists is reiterating its calls for new or revamped semiconductor facilities to commit to environmental and safety measures, including limiting PFAS exposures, as the Commerce Department begins awarding funds under a new program aimed at rebuilding the domestic semiconductor industry.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration appears to be blocking implementation of California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) landmark indoor heat worker-safety rules that were previously expected to take effect July 1, citing new projections of high compliance costs, even after the agency’s standards board approved the rules at a chaotic March 21 meeting.

An attorney for employers says he anticipates that OSHA will soon finalize its controversial rule to allow representatives to take part in enforcement “walkaround” inspections even if they are not employed at the site, after the regulation sped through White House review -- a move he says is almost guaranteed to bring immediate court challenges.

Just-released fiscal year 2024 spending legislation keeps OSHA and other Labor Department (DOL) worker-protection agencies at their current funding despite an overall cut to the department, while preserving some of the budget for the lapsed Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard (CFATS) program -- which could allow Congress to revive it later in the year.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is raising early attacks on a workplace exposure limit in EPA’s draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde, calling it unreasonably strict and at odds with science -- even as the agency itself acknowledges that key challenges in implementing that figure could lead to a different value in its eventual rulemaking.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is blocking inclusion of a Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) reauthorization in an upcoming spending bill -- a proposal that the source says may be the “last shot” to revive the lapsed program, a top chemical industry official says.

EPA has released its final TSCA risk-management rule for chrysotile asbestos, aiming to phase out the carcinogen from chlor-alkali production on a sliding timeline that will run between five and 12 years based in part on the alternative technology to which a facility is switching -- a win for industry groups that argued the proposed two-year deadline was impossible.

But Democrats, unions and environmentalists are still touting the rule as a major step for worker protection at facilities that continued to use asbestos in various parts and processes.

EPA’s long-awaited draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde says all of its industrial uses and many commercial applications of the ubiquitous chemical pose “unreasonable risk” to workers and others, which could form the basis for a landmark rule regulating or even banning such uses amid industry’s broad attacks on the agency’s science and review process.

OSHA is petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit to require a Kansas-based contracting company to comply with Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) orders after the firm was found liable for four OSH Act violations -- a rare step for the agency to rely on a court petition to enforce orders.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is launching development of “a hazard review document” for outdoor workers’ exposures to wildfire smoke, building on a multi-agency effort to limit the fires and their effects that the White House launched late last year.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials have released a model for firms to draft workplace violence-prevention plans required by a controversial 2023 state law that sought to broaden the state’s long-standing violence protections for healthcare workers to “general industry,” as employer groups expect a scramble to put the plans in place by a July 1 deadline.

The Biden administration is asking Congress to set OSHA’s budget at $655.463 million in fiscal year 2025 as part of a pared-down budget for the Department of Labor (DOL) as a whole -- an increase from current levels but substantially below what the White House sought in prior appropriations requests.

Chemical companies and trade groups are renewing calls to loosen EPA’s impending rule setting strict worker-protection requirements for the solvent methylene chloride, arguing in recent White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) meetings that the agency must adopt broader exemptions and longer compliance timelines in order to make the policy workable.

EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff used a March 5 speech to reiterate her defenses of the agency’s approach to workplace safety in a series of landmark chemical-safety rules, seeking to counter arguments that it is improperly stepping into areas that should be the domain of OSHA or older environmental programs.

Industry groups and other supporters of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program are urging lawmakers to reauthorize it as part of an emerging fiscal year 2024 appropriations package that could be finalized before the end of the month.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is facing both a stakeholder petition and pending legislation seeking what would be a pioneering rule mandating that workplace first-aid kits include the nasal spray naloxone hydrochloride -- a medication to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses -- but the calls are facing early employer objections over costs and feasibility.