Daily News

Federal agencies are scrambling to protect the U.S. workforce from the coronavirus threat, with EPA announcing that its staff should be prepared to soon start teleworking to reduce exposure risks and OSHA detailing a range of voluntary steps companies can take to reduce employees’ risks depending on their potential exposure.

But some Democrats say the agencies’ measures fall short of what is necessary to protect workers at very high risk of exposure, including healthcare workers treating patients with the virus, also known as COVID-19.

With the federal chemical security program’s power slated to expire next month, its future is in doubt as lawmakers are at an impasse over whether to eliminate and replace it with a voluntary effort that the Trump administration and some Senate Republicans favor, or temporarily extend it as House Democrats and some industry groups prefer.

House Democrats are pushing legislation that would force OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard to protect healthcare workers caring for patients suffering from coronavirus, noting there is no such mandatory federal policy and that Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance to protect the workers is not binding.

The National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health (NIOSH) is launching a pilot study to evaluate workplace hazards facing landscapers and groundskeepers and to develop “appropriate” controls for one of the highest-risk sectors, seeking participants to take part as NIOSH eyes options for reducing workers’ exposures to substances like silica.

A key House Democrat is questioning EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler over the regulatory impact of the administration’s decision to drop as the basis for its evaluation of trichloroethylene (TCE) studies showing in utero exposure can cause cardiac birth defects, asking whether this may allow the agency to avoid banning the chemical.

Congress’ supplemental $7.8 billion funding bill to tackle the spread of the coronavirus includes $10 million for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to pursue worker-based training to prevent and reduce exposures to the virus of hospital employees, emergency first responders, and other workers at risk.

OSHA and labor unions are opposing building industry groups’ call to sever and transfer the sector’s lawsuit over agency beryllium standards from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to the 8th Circuit, which has stayed a long-pending challenge from other industry groups over the agency’s standards.

In recent briefs, they reject industry’s claim that its lawsuit has much in common with a related beryllium lawsuit pending in the other appellate court.

A federal appeals court has rejected a hospital’s challenge to a penalty OSHA imposed under its General Duty Clause authority for not adequately addressing workplace violence, while sidestepping the hospital’s claim that the agency should instead have issued a rulemaking to address workplace violence rather than a citation.

A court-appointed attorney is backing a finding by OSHA’s independent review panel that raised the bar for when the agency can cite a company for “repeat” violations for workplace safety rules and impose strict penalties, rejecting an agency challenge to the finding as ignoring the facts of the case and as moot because no remedy is possible.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has finalized a rule narrowing its definition of when contractors and franchisees are “joint employers” subject to labor safety and other laws, over the objections of worker safety advocates who fear the plan could increase risks to many employees by hindering OSHA's ability to enforce safety requirements.

Correction Appended

Building industry groups are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to grant their request to shift pending litigation over OSHA’s beryllium worker exposure rule to the 8th Circuit, arguing that their claims in the suit are substantially similar to other industry challenges to the rule in that circuit.

EPA toxics officials are considering extending the deadline for companies to self-identify to the agency that they manufacture, process or import one of 20 chemicals the agency plans to assess in the coming months as officials grapple with how to divvy up the $1.35 million assessment fee in the face of industry confusion and concern.

The California Chamber of Commerce is warning employers that state regulators are poised to adopt likely expensive and burdensome new worker safety regulations in the coming year, including tighter lead-exposure standards, more stringent wildfire smoke protections, and first-time indoor heat protection measures.

EPA’s draft risk evaluation of the common solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) finds multiple uses present unreasonable risks to exposed workers and consumers under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), even though the agency declined to use a controversial study indicating potential for congenital heart defects that industry has long disputed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has rejected a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for details on a hog slaughter facility’s application to use a new USDA inspection program that critics say will hurt workers’ safety, highlighting a lack of public data on the process that is central to a pending worker safety challenge to the program.

EPA’s toxics chief says the agency is grappling with how to obtain more data about chemicals from companies while having limited ability to protect it as confidential business information (CBI) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), an issue industry sources say limits companies’ interest and ability to share studies with EPA.

OSHA has launched a National Emphasis Program (NEP) to focus its resources on enforcing silica standards for manufacturing, construction and several other industries, while also requiring states to adopt the NEP in order to identify and reduce or eliminate worker exposures to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) in the affected sectors.

Following the lead set by OHSA’s effort to bolster enforcement, the Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) is ramping up its worker safety compliance efforts, raising the civil penalties that it can impose against mine owners, and touting the fact that compliance outreach efforts have led to a major drop in annual mining fatalities.

In a rare moment of agreement, the chemical industry and environmentalists are generally urging the Trump administration to provide more transparency into the actions of its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) new chemicals review program, though the two sides are targeting different aspects of the program for increased transparency.

OSHA is fighting a refining company’s legal bid to limit the “substantial continuity” test used to determine a new company owner’s liability for violations of agency policies, urging a federal appeals court to find that five violations by the refiner were “repeat” and subject to stricter penalties rather than stand-alone “serious” violations.