Daily News

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is proposing a rule that would require industrial facilities to quickly report to the CSB certain accidental chemical releases, a measure that when finalized could fill in gaps left by the Trump EPA’s rule rolling back the agency’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) program.

Health and labor groups, along with two top Democrats, are raising concerns about OSHA’s plan to revise exposure standards for beryllium in the shipyard and construction sectors, and are urging changes to the plan to better protect workers’ health, highlighting a clash with industry groups who are threatening to sue OSHA if it finalizes the rule.

A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling that blocked the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) from enforcing subpoenas related to “potential” releases, with the three-judge panel finding the board’s reach includes the power to subpoena documents to examine the “potential harm” stemming from an industrial accident.

A federal judge is grappling with tough questions on standing and review standards as he weighs whether to dismiss on both procedural and substantive grounds a potentially precedent-setting suit challenging EPA’s denial of a Toxic Substances Control Act’s (TSCA) citizen petition which asked the agency to ban drinking water fluoridation.

New OSHA data shows a slight uptick in total inspections in fiscal year 2019, but a former top Obama official is faulting the agency for declining inspection levels compared to the end of the previous administration, saying that even though inspections rose to 33,401 compared to 32,023 in FY18, overall inspection levels have plunged during the Trump administration.

EPA is rejecting calls from former officials, labor and other advocates to exercise special “emergency” authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to quickly address the risks of methylene chloride, the widely used solvent, to workers and others arguing that the agency’s draft risk evaluation does not justify taking such an action.

Major industry organizations are renewing their concerns over OSHA’s proposal to revise the standards for occupational exposure to beryllium and beryllium compounds in the shipyard and construction sectors, with the groups warning that the plan might be unlawful -- a hint of possible legal challenges if OSHA finalizes the plan.

As EPA’s ban on consumer uses of paint strippers containing methylene chloride (MC) takes effect, former officials are urging the agency to quickly adopt a host of emergency limits on commercial and other uses of the substance, citing a recent draft assessment that found they pose “unreasonable risks” to workers and others that must quickly be addressed.

OSHA has slowed plans to advance key rules it is developing, including measures addressing significant hazards for emergency response workers and a draft health care workplace violence standard, according to its fall update to its Unified Agenda, a move that is sparking criticism from safety advocates.

Appellate judges are suggesting they may overturn a lower court ruling that limited the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB) ability, as part of an accident investigation, to subpoena documents to study risks of “potential” releases of hazardous chemicals into the environment.

Supporters of legislation banning the use and importation of asbestos under EPA’s toxics authority are gearing up to advance the bill in the Senate after the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted overwhelmingly Nov. 19 to approve a bipartisan compromise, which gives the chlor-alkali industry as much as 10 years to phase-in the ban.

The Trump administration has issued a final rule that rolls back Obama-era chemical facility safety requirements even as officials previewed its legal defenses against all but certain challenges from Democratic states and environmentalists who had threatened to sue over the 2018 proposal that the agency largely codified.

While industry says EPA’s final rule governing the so-called Risk Management Plan (RMP) program appears to resolve its major concerns with the Obama rule, environmentalists are all but warning that they will sue.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) plans a “hard” push next year to advance in the Senate just-passed House legislation that would force OSHA to issue workplace violence standards for the healthcare and social service sectors, saying the more than 30 Republicans backing the House bill suggest it could attract similar bipartisan support in the Senate.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is criticizing the Defense Department’s (DOD) approach for developing a new occupational exposure limit (OEL) for the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), including DOD’s decision to exclude a controversial study EPA has used to set TCE risk values to protect against fetal heart malformations.

The House appears poised to approve legislation that would force OSHA to quickly issue workplace violence standards for the healthcare and social service sectors, with Democratic and GOP lawmakers discussing potential compromises to bolster the bill’s support, even as the measure faces a White House veto threat.

A federal judge has rejected EPA’s effort to block environmentalists’ suit challenging the agency’s refusal to craft asbestos reporting rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a potentially precedent-setting ruling that could further bolster plaintiffs’ efforts seeking to challenge EPA petition denials.

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in just-released figures on annual workplace injuries and illnesses shows 2.8 million nonfatal incidents in 2018, the same level as 2017 and the first year since 2012 that the total rate did not decline.

A former Obama administration official says the lack of an overall decrease in injuries and illnesses is due to a drop in OSHA enforcement under the Trump administration.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has denied environmentalists and labor groups’ challenges to the scope of EPA’s framework rule for evaluating existing chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), but the court also rejected EPA’s push to preclude “legacy uses” and associated disposal when assessing risks.

OSHA’s launch of a new approach to weighting and measuring enforcement expands from the prior approach of focusing on the number of inspections to include other factors such as types of hazards, which a law firm says will put the agency’s inspection focus on high hazard areas and cases in line with OSHA’s enforcement priorities.

The safety advocacy group Food & Water Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) aiming to force release of data underpinning the agency’s final rule easing swine slaughter inspection mandates, a policy that the group has warned poses major risks to workers.