Daily News

OSHA's advisors appear divided over whether to recommend the agency craft a broad new emergency response rule, with one advisor arguing new requirements could shutter company fire brigades while impinging on safety at many public fire departments, though others say a rule would improve safety and set a baseline for local standards.

Industry attorneys are highlighting challenges companies face under an Obama administration policy of targeting worker safety violations with environmental laws, including increased penalties, vague standards and more complex dealings with federal safety investigators -- areas the incoming Trump administration may target in scaling back enforcement.

Federal science advisors reviewing EPA's analysis of whether glyphosate, the world's most commonly-used herbicide, causes cancer are faulting data gaps in the agency's review, including on potential risks to production workers and on pesticide formulations, though officials say risks to production workers are OSHA's responsibility and outside the scope of its analysis.

Chemical makers are stepping up their concerns over EPA’s implementation of provisions in the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) over how to assess the safety to workers and others of new chemicals, warning ahead of an EPA meeting that they could lead to delays in reviews and increase burdens on industry.

A small business group is urging a federal court in Texas to preserve their lawsuit seeking to block OSHA's 2013 memo interpreting federal law as allowing union officials to accompany agency inspectors onto non-unionized work sites, pushing back against a recent agency motion to dismiss the suit.

Industry officials are urging lawmakers and representatives of President-elect Donald Trump to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) or other means to block the Obama administration's pending rule strengthening industrial facility safety requirements, arguing that officials have failed to justify the proposed rule's costly and unnecessary new requirements.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging a federal appeals court to vacate OSHA's final rule overhauling its silica standards for the first time in decades, backing construction industry arguments that the agency failed to adequately justify the rule, and that the existing standard has dramatically reduced worker deaths and is adequate.

OSHA is poised to publish its plan seeking data to inform a possible workplace violence prevention standard for the healthcare and social service sectors, including data on the effectiveness of employer violence prevention programs, following calls from House Democrats and labor groups for a rule that would require employers to craft such programs.

OSHA will soon forward for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review a proposed safety certification rule for crane operators on construction sites, one of several updates the agency is weighing to bolster its standard, though an operator certification group is questioning whether the rule will be out before a compliance deadline next year.

Agricultural retailers are urging a federal appeals court to reject OSHA's request for rehearing a decision this fall vacating the agency's 2015 policy narrowing an exemption from its process safety management (PSM) standard for retailers, arguing the agency has failed to meet the standard for rehearing and misconstrued the adverse ruling.

A coalition of chemical, agricultural and other industry groups are urging the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to return EPA's proposed risk management plan (RMP) facility safety rule for further review to the agency, claiming that officials failed to properly analyze the costs and benefits of the revised policy.

OSHA Chief David Michaels appears undeterred by the prospect that recently-issued OSHA rules may face rollback from the incoming Donald Trump administration, saying that the agency is still working to issue new rules, including an overhaul of its standard for protecting workers from exposure to beryllium, among others.

A federal judge has rejected industry's request for a nationwide preliminary injunction against OSHA's new injury and illness reporting rule, set to take effect Dec. 1, ruling that plaintiffs failed to show an injunction is necessary to prevent irreparable harm and is in the public interest, though he did not preclude a future ruling in industry's favor on the merits.

Industry officials are urging OSHA to extend an early December comment deadline on a portion of a proposed rule that seeks to expand when the agency's safety standard applies to power equipment that is shut off during repair work, charging the plan raises procedural and cost concerns, though one lawyer says the Trump administration will likely block the change.

The Obama administration's novel decision to conditionally register a nanosilver pesticide while mitigating risks to exposed workers faced a series of questions from a panel of appellate judges during recent oral argument on whether the agency could prove that its registration would not result in increased releases or is in the public interest.

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Office of Inspector General (IG) is again criticizing OSHA's measures for demonstrating that its inspections are improving compliance with its rules, as well as worker health and safety, providing ammunition for a widely expected rollback of agency rules and enforcement under a Donald Trump administration.

Construction industry groups are urging a federal appeals court to vacate OSHA's recent overhaul of its silica standards because the agency failed to provide evidence that the rule is needed or is feasible, an argument that if successful would bolster a widely expected push by the incoming Trump administration to rollback President Obama's signature worker safety rule.

Chemical industry officials are "hopeful" that incoming Trump officials will drop Obama administration plans to issue a trio of Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 6(a) rules to ban or further restrict chemicals that harm workers, undercutting efforts to exercise the once-rare authority over “existing” chemicals.

EPA in recent months has sent three proposed rules to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance, all of which seek to address concerns about occupational exposures.

State regulators are seeking to delay by one year implementation of a rule that seeks to harmonize EPA's farmworker protection standards (WPS) with OSHA requirements, arguing the agency failed to finalize adequate training and enforcement guidance for the rule and that the extra time is vital to provide that assistance.

As OSHA embarks on a rule revising its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), chemical and agricultural sector officials are seeking a series of exemptions from the standard, including reduced requirements for certain shipments and for small packages, among others.

OSHA is overhauling its HCS rule, which requires chemical manufacturers and importers to evaluate the hazards of their substances and prepare labels and safety data sheets to ensure that workers and customers understand chemical hazards, to continue harmonization with an international hazard labeling program.