Daily News

A chemical industry group has told California regulators that while it has found one “possible” safer alternative to methylene chloride in paint and varnish stripping products, it is not clear whether the alternative is safe enough to win state approval, highlighting the difficulty regulators face as they seek to ban such products due in part to worker risks.

Senators are eyeing a fix for small business legislation to address concerns from a major firefighters’ group that the bill puts first responders and communities near chemical facilities at risk, with the bill’s lead sponsor Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) aiming to swiftly revise the bill ahead of the homeland security panel’s next markup.

California health officials are preparing on Jan. 1 to start reporting high lead-level blood tests of workers to Cal/OSHA and the agency must consider carrying out workplace inspections and requiring additional reporting by businesses, under the requirements of a controversial law Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) enacted last month.

OSHA is believed to be considering bringing a case testing whether it can cite an employer using a voluntary permissible exposure limits (PELs) for exposures to hazardous substances even when the exposure is below the federal PEL, say legal observers who nevertheless argue companies would have defenses against such a case.

A government watchdog group is weighing a lawsuit against EPA after the agency denied its petition seeking to ban the refinery chemical hydrofluoric acid (HF) under its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and Clean Air Act authorities, with the agency saying the group failed to provide sufficient facts to support a ban.

Racing to meet an extended June 2020 deadline to complete 10 chemical evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA has released its latest draft risk analysis -- of a widely used solvent -- though it will almost certainly draw criticisms from peer reviewers who continue to criticize the agency’s risk methods.

Employer attorneys are alerting companies in California about their responsibilities to comply with new state OSHA wildfire smoke exposure and safety rules, highlighting the importance of adhering to the rules while multiple fires sweep through large swaths of the state in both agricultural and urban areas.

Clarification Appended

James Sullivan, the chairman and lone member of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), is optimistic that Congress will swiftly approve two nominations to join the panel so that it can once again have a quorum to resume its work reviewing contested OSHA workplace citations and penalties.

EPA’s has released a draft risk evaluation that finds scores of methylene chloride uses can pose unreasonable risks to consumers, workers and bystanders, a finding that opens the door to the agency adopting new toxics rules months after issuing a controversial measure that regulated only consumer uses of paint strippers containing the chemical.

Thirteen Democratic state attorneys general (AGs) are citing preliminary investigation results from the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) on explosions at a Philadelphia refinery to reiterate their recent calls for EPA and the White House to “abandon” plans to roll back strict Obama-era Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety requirements.

EPA is poised to release its draft evaluation of environmental and health risks from exposure to methylene chloride, according to a pending Federal Register notice, raising questions about what risk determinations the agency proposes, particularly regarding occupational exposures not addressed in its existing rule.

Patients and transplant centers are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to review a three-judge panel decision that sidestepped a fight over deference courts give to OSHA and other agencies when it upheld a federal liver transplant policy, arguing the panel erred in finding the government’s rule interpretations to be valid.

The case, Randall Callahan, et al. v. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is seen as one of the first to interpret a June 26 Supreme Court ruling on when judicial deference to agencies comes into play.

Experts peer reviewing EPA’s new model for estimating lead concentrations in humans praised the agency’s years-long effort to craft a more-advanced model but urged the agency to clarify its applications and audience, with one peer reviewer noting increasing concerns about exposures given alleged flaws in OSHA’s lead standards.

House Democrats used an Oct. 23 hearing to bolster pending legislation that they say would enhance safety protections for so-called “gig” workers, who are currently identified as independent contractors and not covered by OSHA safety requirements and other federal labor protections that apply to employees.

But several Republicans at the hearing countered that the bill, H.R. 2474, known as the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, is a “radical” measure that would strengthen unions at the expense of jobs and the economy.

President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders (EOs) curtailing OSHA and other agencies’ use of guidance and other policy memos ramp up scrutiny of OSHA’s contentious approach to guidance, which has long drawn criticism, including from the agency’s inspector general (IG).

Under the orders, OSHA will have to publicly release its non-binding guidance documents and similar memos, and it will also have to circulate drafts of them for input from stakeholders.

OSHA plans to hold a stakeholder meeting next month to hear input from companies on leading indicators used to preemptively address workplace health and safety, planning to use the information it receives to develop additional tools that might assist employers with taking more preventative and predictive steps to protect worker safety.

Environmentalists are urging EPA to quickly use authority under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to address acute human health risks that exposure to the solvent chemical 1-bromopropane (1-BP) presents to workers and the very young, even before the agency finalizes its TSCA risk assessment of the substance.

Correction Appended

President Donald Trump intends to nominate former OSHA Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission (OSHRC) member Cynthia Attwood to rejoin the panel that decides challenges to citations or penalties resulting from agency inspections of workplaces, a position that she first held starting in February 2010.

A hazardous waste facility is urging EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) to scrap an agency-crafted Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) permit that includes OSHA worker safety requirements, arguing that EPA cannot force permittees to follow OSHA rules in RCRA permits.

Industry officials are optimistic that the White House will approve a pending final EPA rule to repeal Obama-era Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety requirements, and an environmentalist opposed to the effort says the agency “seems intent” on finalizing the delayed rollback.