A small business advocacy group is seeking to block OSHA from enforcing its 2013 memo interpreting federal law as allowing union representatives to accompany OSHA inspectors onto non-unionized work sites, arguing the memo violates the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act and was issued without following rulemaking procedures.
State regulators are urging OSHA to again delay enforcement of its controversial 2015 policy memo expanding its process safety management (PSM) facility safety rule to cover fertilizer retailers, saying the agency should wait until it seeks input on crafting guidance for how facilities should implement and comply with the rule.
Chemical and dry cleaning industry representatives are reiterating concerns with EPA's risk assessment underpinning the agency's upcoming proposed rule aimed at protecting workers and others from risks posed by the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) when used as a spotting agent in dry cleaning and in consumer aerosol spray degreasers, highlighting alleged flaws in the review.
Representatives from the halogenated solvents and dry cleaning industries are urging the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) to question EPA's failure to complete a small business impacts review for its pending proposal to limit occupational safety and other risks of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE).
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is joining her fellow California senator asking EPA to include asbestos as one of the first 10 high-risk chemicals the agency prioritizes for review and possible regulation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), saying that doing so would “reaffirm confidence” in EPA's power to restrict the known carcinogen in workplaces and elsewhere.
OSHA is poised to seek data from industry groups and other stakeholders for a possible overhaul of its decades-old rules aimed at preventing falls in shipyards, a class of accidents that result in several fatalities and injuries each year, according to agency data.
OSHA and Canada's health regulators are slated to take a series of steps over the next few months as part of their long-standing effort to harmonize their hazard and communication systems to protect workers from chemicals in the workplace under the international chemical labeling regime.
Groups representing major industrial sectors and environmentalists are querying how EPA plans to define key terms for its pending rule under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to prioritize chemicals for risk assessment, including “susceptible subpopulations,” such as workers, and how to satisfy a statutory mandate for scientific integrity.
Chemical solvent producers are pushing back against pending EPA rules restricting certain chemical uses to protect against workplace and consumer exposures, arguing in White House meetings that EPA's rules encroach on OSHA's jurisdiction, and petitioning the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to bolster consumer protections before EPA does.
Health and safety advocates say California's proposal to mandate that petroleum refineries use strict inherently safer technology (IST) to improve facility safety in order to protect workers and prevent accidents supports their request for OSHA and EPA to mandate IST in future facility safety rules.
An attorney who advises employers on OSHA policies says the pending industry challenge to the agency's new injury and illness reporting regulation is sufficient “to the kill rule,” though the attorney is still urging companies to comply with the rule's controversial provisions aimed at deterring retaliation against employees who report injuries.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the environment committee, is urging EPA to use new authority in the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to start the process of banning asbestos, saying that some lawmakers who backed TSCA reform did so with the expectation it would help EPA issue such a prohibition.
An industry association is asserting that OSHA, in a recently-issued letter of interpretation, has expanded its interpretation of a reportable injury, citing the agency's finding that an employee's injury must be reported -- even though the treatment was self-prescribed, and although eventually backed by a doctor, not medically-required.
State regulators are urging OSHA to drop language in its interim final rule increasing civil penalties that they say appears to require that states with OSHA-approved enforcement plans also raise their penalties for health and safety violations, arguing that such a requirement would exceed OSHA authority.
The Obama administration's controversial new rules and related guidance to assist federal agencies in weighing health and safety and other labor law violations in procurement decisions backs labor advocates' calls to expand the list violations that agencies must consider in their decisions even as officials defended against industry claims that the measure is unnecessary and exceeds federal authority.
The Labor Department (DOL) is urging a federal court to reject a magistrate judge's landmark recommendation to limit an OSHA inspection of a poultry processing facility to the circumstances of an employee's injury, in a case that worker advocates say could severely limit the agency's enforcement authority.
OSHA is urging a federal court to reject an industry lawsuit seeking to block anti-retaliation provisions of the agency's new injury and illness record-keeping and reporting rule, claiming broad statutory authority and discretion to ensure accurate reporting of worker injuries, and that the industry lawsuit is unlikely to succeed.
Local officials from a California county where numerous industrial facility accidents have occurred in recent years are urging OSHA to strengthen its facility worker safety program by covering additional substances and hazards, and adding requirements for facilities to conduct new analyses and emergency drills.
Chemical and petroleum industry groups are urging OSHA to halt or minimize potential revisions to its process safety management (PSM) rule, raising new arguments that the agency lacks statutory authority for some possible changes, while urging officials to streamline any new requirements with upcoming EPA rules.
An industry attorney expects that OSHA will soon begin a national or at least regional emphasis program targeting enforcement against industries that the agency deems pose significant hazards to temporary workers, calling such a program an expected progression of the agency's recent focus on protecting temporary workers on job sites.