As EPA prepares to issue a final rule strengthening its facility accident prevention program, producers of small-batch chemicals are defending the safety of their operations in a bid to resist EPA and OSHA suggestions that production of their products is less safe than manufacture of chemicals in large batch continuous processing.
A federal panel weighing how potential changes to OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM) facility accident prevention program will affect small businesses is requesting data on the cost of complying with the agency's controversial 2015 policy narrowing a PSM exemption for retailers, suggesting the costs are “modest” given facilities already comply with a similar Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule.
An attorney who has represented major industry groups is urging a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel advising OSHA to limit calls for any additional illness and injury reporting and record-keeping mandates on employers, arguing that current rules adequately identify risks and that federal officials should better use existing data to assess the causes of common injuries and work with employers to prevent those incidents.
OSHA is seeking to bolster its tracking of employee injury and illness reporting to prevent workplace accidents, with steps including the sponsorship of a new National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study on improving surveillance of worker injuries, and possibly looking at ways to increase the role of workers' compensation insurers in accident prevention.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is seeking to intervene in support of a brick industry lawsuit challenging OSHA's recently-issued final rule overhauling its silica standards, arguing that the regulation will impose more than $1 billion in compliance costs each year and affect dozens of industries.
Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) -- a key figure in crafting the final Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform bill and also a top Democrat on the Senate appropriations panel that oversees EPA -- says the agency's current funding is adequate to start implementing the overhaul, and that it is unlikely to get a budget boost in upcoming spending legislation.
EPA is aligning its hazard classification system for industrial facilities' reporting of hazardous chemicals under the agency's emergency planning rule with categories OSHA adopted in a 2012 update to its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS).
Senate appropriators have advanced a fiscal year 2017 spending bill that continues an effort begun last year to block OSHA implementation of controversial policy interpretations that expand the agency's process safety management (PSM) standards until they are codified in rulemakings, raising doubts about the policies' continued implementation.
Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) is touting regulatory certainty for chemical manufacturers and other proponents of chemical safety reform as a major win in the final legislation to overhaul the decades old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which the Senate approved June 7 and sent to President Obama for his expected signature.
An industry attorney is casting doubt on the prospects that expected legal challenges will succeed in blocking OSHA's new electronic record-keeping and reporting rule for worker injuries, noting the agency has broad authority to require record-keeping.
Construction industry and labor groups are raising competing arguments in their lawsuits challenging OSHA's recent overhaul of its silica standards with labor groups arguing that the agency's long-awaited rule failed to go far enough to protect workers, and industry saying the agency has failed to adequately justify risk estimates underpinning the rule.
A federal appeals court has stayed the chemical industry's challenge to OSHA's controversial memo for determining whether a chemical is present in sufficient concentrations that a facility is subject to its process safety management (PSM) standards so the parties can continue ongoing settlement talks.
Civil rights and health and safety advocates who have sought to strengthen OSHA's controversial forthcoming guide to assist federal agencies in weighing labor violations in contract decisions are pressing White House officials for a strong final guide that assures advocates have an avenue for assisting in reporting contractors' violations to federal officials.
The Department of Labor's (DOL) Office of Inspector General (IG), in a new report to Congress, says it has “significant concern” about OSHA's ability to protect worker health and safety because the agency's enforcement officials can reach “only a fraction” of work sites.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is urging federal regulators to improve safety on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs by collecting and publicly sharing facility data on incidents that suggest accident risk, echoing advocates' calls to improve safety through greater disclosure.
With average temperatures rising as a result of climate change, a top OSHA official is warning employers to ensure they take adequate precautions to protect their workers from heat-related injury or death, or face risk of enforcement actions and penalties.
Despite a threatened veto from the White House, the Senate appears slated to join the House in adopting legislation that would gut OSHA's plan for implementing President Obama's directive that the agency consider government contractors' records of workplace violations in granting contracts.
Industry groups are laying out a multi-part strategy aimed at stymieing -- and eventually rewriting -- OSHA's recently finalized electronic recordkeeping and reporting rule, signaling the measure will face significant opposition in Congress and the courts as the Obama administration prepares to leave office in the coming months.
EPA is defending its process for overhauling its risk management plan (RMP) facility safety program, rejecting Republican lawmakers' requests to extend the public comment period and downplaying claims that the policy will impose unfunded mandates on emergency responders.
House lawmakers appear poised to vote by wide margins May 24 to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for the first time in 40 years, after lawmakers made late changes to the legislation that won support from top Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).