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OSHA says employers should follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new COVID-19 guidance exempting fully vaccinated people from many infection-control measures like masking and social distancing when deciding what is “appropriate to protect fully vaccinated workers,” and plans to soon update its own guide.

Employers are pressing OSHA to soften its planned COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) by citing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new guidance loosening mask mandates and other requirements for fully vaccinated people, saying it undermines prior calls for strict workplace mandates.

An asbestos-focused citizen group is urging the Biden administration to mandate steps to protect workers from the notorious carcinogen in its plans for sweeping upgrades to buildings and infrastructure nationwide, claiming that while OSHA and EPA have standards in place for the substance, few employers are actively following them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has unveiled new COVID-19 guidance that allows “fully vaccinated” individuals to avoid wearing masks or socially distancing in many settings, just as employers are urging OSHA to include similar language in its upcoming emergency temporary standard (ETS).

Attorneys representing employers and industry groups say draft revisions to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) represent a “big improvement” over the current rules, including easing some requirements covering what constitutes exposure, notification requirements and testing obligations.

An environmental whistleblower group claims Katherine Lemos, chair and sole current member of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) rewrote the panel’s governing rules to “consolidate” her power at the expense of three pending nominees, and claims she has improperly spent CSB funds during her tenure.

An OSHA enforcement official says the agency is working with the Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor (SOL) on policies for considering vaccinated workers’ status as it implements its COVID-19 national emphasis program (NEP), with delegated states slated to decide soon on whether to adopt the federal enforcement plan.

As the White House continues to weigh OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19, several states are adapting their emergency pandemic rules for long-term use, including moves by California regulators to loosen requirements for vaccinated workers and by Oregon to retain that state’s once-temporary standard indefinitely.

President Joe Biden’s nominees to fill three of four vacant slots on the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), the agency that advises OSHA and EPA on needed policy changes to curtail industrial incidents, are facing likely Senate confirmation battles as key outside groups are split over their relative expertise.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which represents many chemical companies, is opposing the nominees for lacking process-safety experience while a key labor union is supporting them, setting lines for a possible battle over their confirmations.

The Department of Labor (DOL) is touting a new ruling from an administrative law judge (ALJ) upholding OSHA’s citation against a Florida healthcare center finding managers “exposed workers to more than 50 attacks” from residents, shortly after the House passed a bill to mandate a new workplace violence standard.

OSHA has issued interim enforcement guidance for revisions the Trump administration made last year to the agency’s beryllium standards, detailing procedures to guide compliance officers’ site inspections and citations for alleged violations of the revised policies for general industry worksites, shipyards and construction sites.

OSHA appears to be readying a request for information to inform a first-time update to its 1971 safety standard for mechanical power presses, after the agency first announced that it was planning to rework the policy during the George W. Bush administration but took no concrete steps toward a new version for almost 14 years.

OSHA is touting a proposed $265,265 penalty against the discount retail chain Dollar Tree as highlighting the latest in a long string of violations by a company with “a history of not taking the safety of its workers and customers seriously,” the latest sign that the agency has dropped a Trump-era ban on “regulation by shaming.”

President Joe Biden has named three nominees to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) including a former United Auto Workers (UAW) safety official, after labor and industry groups as well as the body’s own inspector general warned that CSB cannot continue to operate with a single member.

OSHA is marking the 50th anniversary of its 1971 founding by touting its imminent emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 and its plans to boost enforcement related to the pandemic, while Democratic lawmakers are using the occasion to ready their latest push to overhaul and tighten the OSH Act.

OSHA has sent its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) rule for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review, more than six weeks after President Joe Biden’s deadline for the ETS that observers expect will take effect within weeks and could include tiered mandates for specific industries.

Congress is stepping up its focus on the Biden administration’s worker protection policies, with senators advancing the nomination of Julie Su to be Deputy Labor Secretary while members of a key House subcommittee plan a hearing on OSHA’s development of an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19.

OSHA says employees’ negative reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine are “work-related” and thus subject to recordkeeping and reporting mandates if an employer “requires” the vaccination, a definition the agency says it will read broadly to include any workplace where unvaccinated workers face “adverse action.”

A new analysis conducted by OSHA researchers and academics says EPA’s risk evaluation of methylene chloride undercounted workers’ deaths from exposure to products made with the chemical by almost 40 percent if not more, prompting calls from some of its authors as well as environmental groups for EPA to ban use of the solvent.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) acting regulatory chief is defending a proposed rule that critics say includes burdensome hazard assessment mandates for industry that could aid EPA’s chemical regulations, saying the new provisions merely codify existing guidance and require industry to take “reasonable” steps.