Daily News

Citing the respondent’s bankruptcy, appellate judges have rejected as moot OSHA’s suit that sought to reverse a ruling from the agency’s independent review panel that raised the bar for citing companies for “repeat” workplace safety rule violations, though the judges also vacated the underlying review panel ruling.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is poised to hear oral argument May 6 in a closely watched suit over a decision by OSHA’s review panel upholding an enforcement action against an Oklahoma refiner for alleged process safety management (PSM) standard violations, which industry says unfairly expands the scope of the PSM.

OSHA is ramping up its issuance of sector-specific guidelines for how a host of businesses including dentists, food and beverage providers, meatpacking plants and others can tackle workplace risks of COVID-19, though agency critics continue to push for binding emergency standards they say would better help reduce those risks.

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has had to pause “several” open investigations into industrial incidents due to concerns over potential COVID-19 exposures and a lack of investigators, though top officials say they are seeking to hire new investigators.

Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia is rejecting the AFL-CIO’s criticism that OSHA is “missing in action” on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic because it has not issued an emergency temporary standard to protect health care workers and several other measures, with Scalia defending a host of voluntary OSHA responses to the crisis.

President Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) using the Defense Production Act to keep meat and poultry processors operating to maintain food supplies during the coronavirus pandemic is prompting legal and political pressure to enforce OSHA’s voluntary guidelines for protecting workers at the facilities who are at high risk of exposure.

EPA is moving ahead with a planned peer review of its just-released draft evaluation of the common solvent perclorothylene (perc or PCE), which finds multiple uses that present unreasonable risk to workers, consumers and the environment, though it is unclear if advisors will have a quorum to be available to review it.

OSHA has issued guidance for how meatpacking facilities -- a major new source of coronavirus infections -- can help protect workers from exposure, including screening employees and using social distancing in the workplace, but critics say the guide is just the latest non-binding advice the administration is providing in lieu of necessary rules.

OSHA has issued a non-binding “hazard bulletin” for grease traps that details how companies should protect workers against trap-related accidents, falling short of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) call for the agency to issue strict new rules for the traps after a child fell through a fast food venue’s grease trap cover and drowned.

EPA’s first-time decision earlier this year to identify 20 chemicals as low priority for risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) faces a looming litigation test as the 60-day deadline for environmentalists or other entities to sue approaches on April 26.

House and Senate Democrats have introduced companion bills that would force OSHA to quickly issue an emergency temporary standard mandating infectious disease exposure control plans in all workplaces to protect against COVID-19, expanding on an earlier bill that sought to establish the swift standard primarily for healthcare workers.

EPA has postponed the upcoming meeting of science advisors scheduled to peer review its draft evaluation of asbestos because some of the advisors are no longer available, a change in course just weeks after officials denied requests from environmentalists and its advisors to delay the meeting because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attorneys representing employers are warning California businesses to pay special attention to complying with Cal/OSHA rules implicated in the COVID-19 emergency, including those covering injury and illness reporting, “aerosol transmissible disease,” and general reporting, pointing out that the state’s rules often go beyond federal requirements.

OSHA is promising to exercise “discretion in enforcement” if employers are unable to comply with various testing, training, inspection and other safety mandates due to the COVID-19 pandemic, writing in a new memo that there will be no penalties for those violations as long as businesses make “good faith” attempts to comply.

A federal judge has ordered a first-time citizen suit under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to proceed in a virtual bench trial later this year due to the coronavirus pandemic despite objections from the plaintiffs who had won the right to a de novo proceeding where they will be able to present new evidence to the court.

OSHA, former Vice President Joe Biden and worker advocates are floating separate efforts to protect delivery workers from the threat of coronavirus, including new “tips” from OSHA to protect such workers and Biden calling for new agency policies to better protect delivery workers in addition to health care employees.

Former Obama OSHA officials, House Democrats and others who have criticized the Trump administration for not issuing a temporary emergency standard to protect health care workers from the coronavirus pandemic are welcoming OSHA’s interim response plan to reduce such risks, but they are renewing calls for the agency to set a binding standard.

EPA has formally rejected environmentalists’ calls to take immediate emergency actions on three chemicals that the agency has found pose acute risks in its draft risk evaluations, arguing in part it would be “premature” to act before EPA works through the evaluation and management process laid out in section 6 of the revised toxic law.

A panel of three appellate judges is grappling with what remedy they could give OSHA if they side with the agency in a suit challenging a finding by OSHA’s independent review panel that raised the bar for citing companies for “repeat” workplace safety rule violations, as well as trying to resolve whether the lawsuit is moot.

OSHA is aiming to ease healthcare workers’ access to respirators during the coronavirus pandemic by issuing two memos offering enforcement discretion of its respiratory protection standard for employers who must otherwise use NIOSH-approved respirators or devices from other countries.