A Republican senator has filed legislation for the second year in a row that if passed would effectively force federal agencies to take further action to comply with an executive order from earlier in the Obama administration to weed out burdensome or duplicative regulations. The measure filed last year gained support from all Senate Republicans but no Democrats, according to a spokeswoman for bill sponsor Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS).
The Environmental Protection Agency is considering dropping its plan to consider arsenic's inhalation risks as part of its pending assessment of the metalloid's ingestion risks because the congressionally mandated National Research Council (NRC) panel peer-reviewing the analysis is tasked only with reviewing EPA's ingestion analysis and lacks expertise to review the inhalation data. Arsenic has come up as a key chemical of concern as OSHA explores updating workplace permissible exposure limits.
OSHA chief David Michaels says incentive programs to keep reported injuries low at work sites -- including employers using so-called rate-based incentives that reward workers depending on low reporting figures -- is a key concern for the agency as it continues efforts to better enforce whistleblower protection statutes. The agency previously detailed a controversial policy suggesting that such rate-based programs can effectively undermine workers' rights to voice concerns about workplace hazards.
Senate labor committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) did not specifically mention OSHA issues among the items he hopes to tackle before retiring from the Senate in 2014, but sources note that the 40-year congressional veteran has signaled concerns about the Obama administration's slow movement on rules that are high priorities for worker advocates. Last spring Harkin chaired a hearing that delved into the length of time it takes OSHA to issue new rules, and OSHA advocates are hopeful the longtime senator will spend time on health and safety issues in his final two years in the Senate.
OSHA is urging employers to protect their workers from carbon monoxide poisoning as the winter months pose increasing hazards from fuel-burning equipment and tools in buildings or semi-enclosed spaces, citing a recent New England case in which several warehouse workers became sick from exposure to carbon monoxide. A worker safety advocate says the alert could help OSHA establish employer recognition of the hazard, which in turn could bolster legal efforts by the agency to address the issue.
A key safety agency has found gaps in OSHA's process safety management (PSM) standard, suggesting a deadly blast in 2011 during a fireworks disposal project in Hawaii may have partly been a result of the standard not requiring a safety review of the work procedures. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) notes in an official report that the PSM standard lacks a mandate to review fireworks disposal, but does not directly make formal a recommendation to OSHA.
OSHA is demanding that Arizona follow federal policy regarding fall protection or risk facing disapproval of its state plan, agreeing with a complaint by safety engineers that a new state law laying out fall protection enforcement requirements fails to meet federal OSHA's more stringent requirements.
The Environmental Protection Agency is weighing last-minute changes to its draft guidance for assessing and remediating vapor intrusion at petroleum-contaminated sites after a panel of experts unanimously urged the agency to revert to less conservative criteria for screening out sites for continued investigation.
The contentious issue of whether health care workers should be required to receive influenza shots is shaping up to be even more of a lightning rod now that an early and severe flu season has kicked in, with reports of workers who refused the shots being fired or forced to wear surgical masks prompting new calls from union officials to put a stop to mandatory flu shot efforts.
Federal agencies should intensify efforts to identify how they would cut back spending if the sequestration goes into effect March 1, the White House Office of Management Budget told agencies this week, adding that agencies should use any flexibility to minimize impacts to their core missions and identify operational challenges that could raise life, safety or health concerns as they continue to plan for the across-the-board cuts.
A Hyatt hotel in San Francisco has reached a settlement with Cal/OSHA to resolve controversial ergonomics complaints by the housekeeping staff, in an agreement that rules out citations against the company for musculoskeletal hazards but which also requires the hotel to continue undergoing a job hazard analysis on site.
At least two names to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Hilda Solis are floating within the occupational safety and health community – one a top advisor in the Clinton White House and former Labor Department official, the other a high-ranking union official – though it is unclear if they are being vetted by the White House.
Farmworker advocates, environmentalists and others say the Environmental Protection Agency has become increasingly vague on what it intends to propose in its long-stalled measure setting new pesticide safety standards for agricultural workers and applicators, sowing doubts on whether the plan will include strict approaches that officials had previously said they would propose.
Industry sources say the issue of when the Environmental Protection Agency's protective standards for vapor intrusion apply at contaminated sites and when levels set by OSHA are appropriate remains unclear after EPA addressed the issue in 2002 draft vapor intrusion guidance but not in a more recent draft, prompting one environmental attorney recently to urge EPA to clarify the issue in final guidance.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis' resignation Wednesday (Jan. 9) from the Labor Department's top post left the occupational safety and health community wondering who might take her place and what the change means for the future of OSHA in President Obama's second term.
Worker safety and health advocates are once again pressuring the White House and OSHA to proceed with a draft proposal for mandating injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2), though the hotly contested rule has still not undergone a small-business review that the agency has said started about a year ago.
OSHA stakeholders anticipate the Obama administration will beef up enforcement against employers with alleged health and safety violations in the Obama administration's second term, continuing the “new sheriff in town” posture of the agency that began in the early days of the takeover from the Bush administration.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is pointing to the Environmental Protection Agency's recent release of risk assessments for five commonly used chemicals to bolster the need for his bill to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing that under the current statute EPA has little authority to limit use of the chemicals should it conclude that they are dangerous to human health or the environment.
OSHA is seeking help from other parts of the administration on ways to streamline its process for accrediting Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL) for timeliness and effectiveness, after Congress' investigative arm blasted the agency's handling of the accreditation process.
OSHA's contentious regulatory effort to tackle combustible dust hazards has re-emerged on the agency's timetable for rulemaking after several months of being listed as a long-term action with no set date to move forward.