Daily News

Environmental and community petitioners are urging an appellate court that struck down the Trump administration's delay of the Obama-era facility accident preventation rule to quickly finalize its ruling, arguing that continued delay poses risks to millions, and that EPA is unlikely to prevail in any future appeal.

EPA's proposal to strengthen its 2001 lead paint dust hazard standards is spurring conflicting reactions, with healthy housing groups and some states urging the agency to significantly tighten its standards, which could prompt greater protections for workers conducting renovation and repair in some facilities with lead paint, though home builders say more data is necessary to ensure the proposal is viable.

Environmentalists and industry attorneys say the appellate court ruling vacating the Trump administration's delay of the Obama-era facility safety rule sets a high bar for EPA's ongoing effort to revise the regulation, given the judges' emphasis on EPA's Clean Air Act duty to prevent disasters and failure to show the delay was consistent with increased safety.

Clarification Appended

An industry attorney is seeking an employer who could act as a plaintiff in a potential lawsuit challenging what the attorney describes as OSHA's practice of "shaming" employers in enforcement press releases as unconstitutional, arguing that the Trump administration has failed to soften critical language in the announcements that harm employers even in cases where allegations are reduced or rescinded.

EPA has dropped an early plan to consider risks of asbestos exposures to firefighters and other first responders due to its policy of excluding legacy uses from consideration for possible regulation under the revised toxics law, a move that is drawing protest from a group representing the workers and highlights the controversy around the policy decision.

Massachusetts researchers are calling for government policies to reduce opioid abuse among construction workers after a new study finding that the state's construction workers are six times more likely to overdose than other workers, highlighting workplace safety concerns stemming from opioids, which OSHA and employers are seeking to address.

Appellate judges have scrapped former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's rule delaying by almost two years implementation of Obama-era facility safety requirements after finding the delay made a “mockery” of Clean Air Act mandates, the latest in a string of legal losses for the agency in suits filed over Pruitt delays of Obama EPA policies.

Democratic lawmakers and public interest groups are urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to scrap a recently announced policy allowing poultry plants to seek waivers from existing line speed limits, arguing the plan undermines USDA's denial of an industry request for broader waivers, and jeopardizes worker safety.

Industry attorneys are welcoming EPA's recent approval of a new chemical that took a narrow view of the substance's “reasonably foreseen uses” that the agency is required to consider, but are urging officials to clarify whether the approach is intended to apply more broadly to agency reviews of other new chemicals under the revised toxics law.

EPA has approved a new chemical for use under the revised toxics law but has limited its review and regulation of the substance's “reasonably foreseen uses,” a move environmentalists say signals a “reckless” process for reviewing new chemicals that violates the June 2016 toxics law by failing to preclude unintended uses from its requirements.

A three-judge federal appellate panel appeared skeptical during recent oral argument of a construction company's challenge to OSHA's “controlling employer” policy, suggesting the agency should be granted deference to interpret its authority and that officials are better positioned than courts to interpret ambiguous statutes.

The Labor Department's (DOL) Inspector General has launched an audit of OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program (WPP) in several Western states after mounting pressure from years of audits related to a major Wells Fargo prosecution as well as internal complaints from a former agency investigator.

Massachusetts officials are signaling strong pushback against a Trump administration proposed rule that could allow for new uses of asbestos, with state environment officials raising early concerns and seeking a six month delay in the rulemaking while the state's attorney general (AG) works with other Democratic AGs to oppose the plan.

A group of 47 Democrats is concerned that a Labor Department (DOL) proposal to weaken rules prohibiting minors from working in certain hazardous operations has not been adequately reviewed for potential safety risks to teen workers, writing in a recent letter that they are unaware of any formal NIOSH review of the underlying data informing the plan.

OSHA has issued its final rule delaying until Dec. 12 some provisions of its Obama-era beryllium standard in order to complete a separate rule that will roll back aspects of the underlying regulation as agreed to in a settlement with industry groups, but the move is facing criticism from some worker advocates though others are grudgingly accepting it.

Business groups are urging the Supreme Court to review and reverse a California high court ruling that backed the state's use of supplemental enforcement powers to address workplace safety violations, fearing it will allow nearly two dozen other states operating under OSHA-approved plans to use their unapproved state laws to address alleged violations.

Business groups and industry attorneys are threatening aggressive advocacy, including reviving stayed suits challenging OSHA's injury and illness recordkeeping program, to address concerns that the Trump administration's planned rollback of an Obama-era rule does not go far enough to remove aspects of the rule employers oppose.

EPA is defending its framework for reviewing new chemicals, including risks to workers, under the revised toxics law against an environmentalist lawsuit by arguing that the policy is consistent with the 2016 law, but also says the framework is a draft that it might never finalize and therefore critics lack legal standing for their challenge.

Labor and public interest groups are faulting OSHA's recent pledge to support three committees that advise the agency's rulemaking and enforcement efforts as “disingenuous,” arguing that the agency has failed to fill the panels, including a construction advisory committee that has not met in more than a year and currently has no members.

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is hedging on Senate Democrats' calls to strictly review and ban certain uses of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) that are blamed for harms to consumers and workers, saying only that the substance is one of 10 the agency has prioritized for review under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).