Some OSHA stakeholders, especially in the worker advocacy community, are expressing deep concern that the Obama administration failed to take into account pressing needs for resources at the safety and health agency to tackle Ebola when President Obama recently sent to Congress a massive emergency funding request to confront the crisis.
The White House on Nov. 5 unveiled a multi-billion dollar fiscal 2015 emergency appropriations request to support Ebola efforts -- including adding to the national stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) to stop the spread of Ebola among health workers -- in a far-reaching spending plan that Congress will take up this week.
OSHA is preparing to issue a “matrix” regarding proper use and supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to shield workers from potential exposure to the Ebola virus in the event suspected or known cases of the highly infectious disease continue to appear in the United States, a key OSHA official working on Ebola concerns said Thursday.
The Republican takeover of the Senate likely foretells huge new difficulties for OSHA's regulatory and enforcement agenda, with one prediction especially dire for the agency: that the GOP will almost certainly try to obstruct, or even dash altogether, longtime efforts to issue a rule clamping down on crystalline silica exposures, Washington sources say.
The Labor Department's internal watchdog is looking into OSHA enforcement practices at Job Corps centers owned by DOL, according to the Office of Inspector General's latest audit work plan which outlines investigative priorities for fiscal 2015.
NIOSH chief John Howard this week outlined several major research priorities that he views as central to government – and industry-wide – efforts to protect workers from Ebola and other diseases, saying the need to match worker exposure levels to appropriate use of personal protective equipment, as well as to test methods for determining the amount of protection from a given type of PPE, are key research issues for infection control experts.
OSHA is signaling that it may soon move forward on a proposed rule to “clarify” OSHA recordkeeping requirements to indicate that the six-month statute of limitations for enforcement restarts every day that an employer fails to correct an inaccurate or incomplete injury and illness log.
OSHA in attempting to issue an infectious disease rule that would apply in health care settings is asking small business representatives to consider a requirement that hospitals retain in-house occupational health experts or hire dedicated consultants to combat the potential spread of infectious agents among workers.
Business groups have decided their day in court is over after D.C. Circuit appellate judges threw out the groups' challenge of OSHA's inclusion of combustible grain dust in its 2012 update to the hazard communication rule, accepting that affected employers will have to integrate the requirement in their operations despite the trade groups' rigorous assertion that OSHA failed to follow regulatory procedure in defining combustible dust, a knowledgeable legal source tells Inside OSHA Online.
OSHA in a tentative regulatory step toward fighting infectious disease transmission in health care settings floats the idea of written, highly specific control plans, which sources say is outside the traditional OSHA approach and akin to injury and illness prevention programs.
OSHA has drafted the framework for an envisioned rule to help stop the spread of infectious diseases in health care work settings, putting a conceptual blueprint of the rule before small business advocates in a required next step of trying to advance the rule, which would in OSHA's eyes include a written infection control plan and qualified personnel within hospitals to oversee disease control efforts on behalf of workers.
OSHA provided direction on Thursday (Oct. 23) for field officers to carry out the agency's cranes and derricks final rule issued in 2010, saying the guidelines explain to compliance officers how to perform inspections in instances where the rule covers power-operated equipment.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is weighing competing comments on improving its facility security program, with industry groups citing an "inherent conflict" with Environmental Protection Agency information-sharing requirements and urging changes to DHS' inspection protocols, while labor and community groups are calling for greater coordination with other federal programs, including OSHA inspections.
The Environmental Protection Agency is adding 23 new chemicals to the list of substances it plans to assess using existing Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) authority, highlighting the agency's ongoing plan to exert its powers under the decades-old law given fading prospects for Congress to agree on a bill to overhaul TSCA and update EPA's chemical review authority.
OSHA chief David Michaels is asking workplace health experts to advise the agency on several conceptual options to address what the agency believes are outdated permissible exposure limits (PELs): eliminating Z-tables in favor of control banding; using the OSH Act general duty clause in cases where employers may know exposure levels are too high; requiring levels consistent with manufacturers' advice; and requiring employers to evaluate exposure scenarios under the European chemical hazard regulatory regime.
OSHA's court victory Friday in a closely watched challenge of the agency's stance that combustible grain dust can be categorized and regulated for labeling purposes as a “hazardous chemical” under the worker right-to-know standard adds legal weight to OSHA's push to regulate the hazard, with Washington sources saying the decision is likely to have far-reaching impact across industries, not just grain production.
OSHA has produced new guidelines in response to Ebola saying workers cleaning or decontaminating for Ebola must use at a “minimum” NIOSH-approved, fit-tested N95 respirators in situations where there could be exposure to the deadly virus through a bio-aerosol, such as could occur from spraying liquids or air during cleaning.
OSHA is “determined” to finalize new regulations before the end of the Obama administration that lower exposure limits and put practices in place to control crystalline silica dust, agency chief David Michaels said Monday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued sweeping new guidelines for health care workers to prevent the spread of Ebola that recommend standard use of N95 or air-purifying respirators near Ebola, as opposed to earlier guidance suggesting such high-end respirators are only needed during aerosol-generating procedures.
Industrial health experts are urgently calling on OSHA, and also taking their case directly to the White House, to move forward as rapidly as possible on a rulemaking to tackle infectious diseases in health care settings -- pressure that follows close on the heels of at least two U.S. health workers testing positive for the Ebola virus.