Daily News

Environmentalists are asking an appellate court in Washington, DC, to allow them to intervene in industry’s challenge to EPA’s ban on consumer uses of paint-stripping products containing methylene chloride (MC), a move that may ultimately lead the case to be consolidated with environmentalists’ separate suit in an appellate court in New York.

OSHA’s fiscal year 2020 spending bill is likely to be part of a Capitol Hill battle after House Democrats attached a series of policy riders, including one barring the agency from implementing a planned rollback of its Obama-era beryllium standard for the maritime and construction sectors.

The amendment -- offered by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee -- bars OSHA from spending any money in FY20 on completing the beryllium rule rollback.

Labor and other groups are urging EPA science advisors ahead of their upcoming meeting to examine whether the agency provided adequate data for its draft conclusion that pigment violet 29 (PV29) does not pose unreasonable risk to workers and other exposed populations, stepping up their long-running effort to challenge EPA’s first assessment of an existing chemical under the revised toxics law.

The federal Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is renewing its long-standing recommendation that OSHA craft rules subjecting onshore oil and gas drilling operations to a specific safety standard following an investigation into a fatal 2018 rig explosion in Oklahoma.

In a report published June 12, the board urged OSHA to either lift its exemption to subject drilling operations to its existing process safety management standard (PSM), tailor the existing PSM standard to the sector or craft a new standard.

Setting a precedent for federal policymakers, Cal/OSHA is revising a draft proposal to expand its healthcare industry workplace violence prevention rules to all general industry, after reviewing comments from stakeholder groups that include opposition by employer representatives.

Cal/OSHA “is working on the new draft language and will post an updated draft with a period for comment,” says an agency spokesman, who declined to estimate when the new proposal will be released.

Environmental and labor groups are suggesting they will sue the agency if it proceeds with its proposed training program for commercial users of paint-stripping products containing methylene chloride, charging the agency has failed to justify its approach after the Obama administration found the chemical posed unreasonable risks to workers.

The House Education and Labor Committee has approved on bipartisan lines a bill that would set speedy deadlines for OSHA to adopt standards aimed at limiting workplace violence in the healthcare and social service sectors, though the measure faces limited prospects in the Republican-controlled Senate which is unlikely to consider the bill.

Democratic state attorneys general (AG) and other groups are urging a federal court to vacate the Trump administration’s rule rolling back OSHA’s electronic reporting and record-keeping requirements, arguing the rollback is not justified, is “plagued” by errors and otherwise violates administrative law.

EPA has approved an alternative disposal method for asbestos-containing pipe under the agency’s air toxics rules for asbestos, despite a labor group’s concerns that the new practice might not comply with OSHA requirements.

A Senate panel is gearing up for a new round of debate on reauthorizing the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, but senators signaled during a June 4 roundtable that while they agree on the need for a long-term extension, they remain divided over how much flexibility to provide.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told the meeting that he plans to renew his past efforts to revise the program to provide regulatory flexibilities for good actors.

Labor unions and other groups challenging the Trump EPA’s framework rule on how the agency evaluates existing chemicals under the revised toxics law say that ongoing risks from legacy and other uses of substances currently being assessed show that they have standing to challenge the rule’s provision allowing the agency to preclude such uses from assessments.

California lawmakers are advancing legislation that would specify an early 2020 deadline for Cal/OSHA to adopt a much tighter airborne lead exposure limit for workers, and establish that a blood-lead level of 20 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dl) or higher is a serious violation triggering Cal/OSHA investigations.

A Texas refiner is petitioning a federal appellate court to review a controversial ruling from OSHA’s review panel that industry attorneys say “dramatically” expands the agency’s process safety management (PSM) rule's applicability to boilers and other “interconnected” units.

As it weighs how and whether to adopt Obama-era worker injury and illness electronic reporting requirements, Cal/OSHA is facing questions over whether it has adequate resources to establish the infrastructure required for such a system, which could prove to be a deciding factor in whether the state opts to pursue a formal rulemaking.

A chemical industry trade association is suing EPA over its first-time Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ban on consumer uses of paint-strippers containing methylene chloride, charging the measure goes too far by unintentionally limiting access to some commercial uses even though it does not intend to.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Group (ADAO) is urging EPA to perform a strict assessment of asbestos’ human health risk, citing in part findings by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and others that there is no safe level of exposure to the toxic mineral as some fear EPA will soften its analysis.

“The ongoing EPA risk evaluation on asbestos provides an important opportunity for EPA to underscore the serious

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will hear oral argument Aug. 5 in public interest groups’ challenge to the constitutionality of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), teeing up a decision that could limit or even block lawmakers’ ability under the 1996 law to revoke rulemakings from OSHA and other agencies.

Over the objections of a broad industry coalition, a California Senate panel has advanced a controversial bill that would require Cal/OSHA to strengthen its standards should it find that the Trump administration has weakened any equivalent federal OSHA standards below levels that were in place at the end of the Obama presidency.

Environmentalists say the Trump administration’s just-announced monthslong delay of its self-imposed deadline for finalizing a rollback of an Obama-era rule tightening facility safety Risk Management Plan (RMP) requirements may suggest the plan is “dead in the water” as it signals ongoing legal doubts about undoing the changes.

EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC) is urging the agency to halt proposed rollbacks of an Obama-era rule strengthening safety requirements at industrial facilities as well as its risk assessment of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO), warning that the efforts could increase public health risks for poor and minority communities.

The panel outlined the concerns in a pair of recent letters to Administrator Andrew Wheeler, the first addressing EPA’s attempt to reverse Obama-era updates to the Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety program.