In an effort to get “ahead of the curve” of federal and state regulators' increasing attention to consumer products and their ingredients, the soap and detergent industry is creating an inventory of chemicals in its products with the aim of providing more information to regulators, particularly state agencies. The industry move comes as an environmental and union group launches a new database of industrial chemicals for worker use.
A six-month continuing resolution introduced in the House on Monday would keep OSHA at just over current funding levels for six months. A source said the House may take up the measure this week followed by the Senate next week, with the possibility that lawmakers in the upper chamber could include additional provisions.
House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said the CR “is a good-faith effort to provide limited, yet fair and adequate funding for government programs and services until March 27, or until final Appropriations legislation can be approved.”
Stakeholders from both industry and worker advocacy groups say OSHA's recent release of data from its National Emphasis Program (NEP) on recordkeeping lacks the level of specificity about the inspection results that would be needed to judge whether it was a worthwhile use of agency resources. One worker health advocate says that with OSHA enforcement resources tight, it would also be useful to provide recordkeeping training and outreach to employers and workers to improve incident recording practices.
Advocates for Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) employers take issue with OSHA's broad stance that company incentive programs have “the potential to” inhibit incident reporting and as a result, discourage adequate recordkeeping. A key organization representing VPP employers disputes OSHA's earlier assertions that the group harbors the same concerns and tells lawmakers the agency “stabbed us in the back” in its handling of the issue.
An environmental consultant who helped industry gain a review from an alliance of risk assessment experts of the Environmental Protection Agency's policy decisions regarding the ubiquitous solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) is arguing in a new paper that the non-cancer risk level in the agency's TCE risk assessment will become a driving factor in many cleanups despite a lack of EPA guidance on the issue. A source familiar with the issue has suggested industry concerns might be driven partly by fears the proposed limit could bolster future worker protection claims.
OSHA officials are pressing forward on a plan, laid out in the agency's fiscal 2013 budget request, to remove the Merit and Corporate levels of participation from Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), following an internal work group's report last year that called for OSHA to consider discontinuing the special levels. An OSHA official says the agency already has or will move ahead with changes sought by the work group, which was spearheaded by a group of regional administrators and area directors studying the effectiveness of VPP.
Democrats vow to continue adopting and enforcing comprehensive OSHA safety standards as part of a 2013 platform unveiled late Monday that contrasts sharply with Republicans' pledge last week to rein in OSHA's regulatory agenda.
A top OSHA official says the agency will ramp up its use of so-called Special Government Employees (SGEs) in the approval and re-approval process for sites that participate in Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP). The move toward increased use of company employees on-site to monitor the voluntary programs follows a special report, spearheaded by OSHA regional administrators, on ways to improve the effectiveness of VPP.
OSHA is making its position clear to two key Senate backers of the agency's Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) that the agency does not target or give preferential treatment to any VPP participants, while defending a policy change last year that made it harder for employers to use injury rate-based incentive programs that OSHA says could discourage injury reporting. The assurances come on the heels of concerns expressed by VPP advocates and a pair of senators over the change regarding how OSHA weighs the use of incentive programs by VPP employers.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is asking a federal district court to order the Health & Human Services Department (HHS) to hand over documents concerning the listing of formaldehyde in the Report on Carcinogens (RoC) that the group alleges HHS has failed to produce in violation of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and other laws.
OSHA officials and representatives of the groups that have filed suit over the agency's recently finalized hazard communication (hazcom) standard have met several times since the litigation began in hopes of coming up with a resolution out of court, a source familiar with the issue tells Inside OSHA Online.
Texas officials have issued a rare inhalation risk assessment of arsenic for use in air monitoring and permit decisions, using the Environmental Protection Agency's conservative “linear” approach for assessing risks that has drawn attacks from industry because the approach -- which EPA is using in its stalled study of arsenic's oral risks -- assumes no safe exposure level. Arsenic has come up as a chemical of concern in OSHA consultations with stakeholders on updating permissible exposure limits.
Republicans are setting their sights on what they call OSHA's “overreaching” regulatory agenda as a key target for policy change as they put together a broad platform for the party's national convention in Tampa, FL. OSHA comes up as an example of what the GOP characterizes as a heavy regulatory burden by the Obama administration, though the draft does not name any specific items on the agency's agenda. The Republicans take a shot at OSHA along with Obama's Environmental Protection Agency and health care and financial services reforms.
OSHA has decided that employers who are labeled as severe violators must keep that status for three years and if they don't meet strict criteria for exiting the controversial monitoring program at that point they must stay in for an additional three years before getting a second evaluation. The newly unveiled exit strategy responds to persistent questions from both inside and outside the agency over how employers could demonstrate adequate compliance to be removed from the stepped-up enforcement effort.
OSHA is rolling out a major reorganization of its Directorate of Enforcement Programs (DEP) that includes a new office to provide technical assistance to the field concerning high-risk occupational chemical hazards, according to internal agency documents obtained by Inside OSHA Online. The new branch of enforcement, called the Office of Chemical Process Safety and Enforcement Initiatives (OCPSEI), will develop a comprehensive program for safety inspections and investigations related to chemical safety and health, the documents say.
Agencies across the federal government have taken steps to protect their workers against an influenza pandemic, but agencies have reported uneven status in some key areas, suggesting further oversight is needed, a recent report by the investigative arm of Congress concludes. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) coincides with the Department of Health and Human Services efforts to increase flu vaccinations rates in the health care sector, including the controversial issue of mandatory inoculation.
Public Citizen has launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of what it estimates are the total costs of on-the-job injuries to the public coffers. The campaign has opened with a report on Maryland's construction industry, in which the group says injuries cost $712.8 million between 2008 and 2010. Sources say the group is trying to make a broader issue of alleged bad actors receiving public contracts.
California's Department of Toxic Substances Control's recently released final draft “green chemistry” regulations are drawing mixed reviews from environmentalists and have failed to quell industry concerns over the costs of the program and how it will be enforced. The draft comes out as OSHA continues exploring ways to tackle what it considers outdated permissible exposure limits for many chemicals.
Two key safety and health organizations are urging the federal government to adopt a set of recommendations from OSHA's federal worker advisory council to upgrade the qualifications for its occupational safety and health (OSH) job series, arguing that the existing requirements are outdated. A source familiar with the process tells Inside OSHA Online that the next steps in evaluating the recommendations include reaching out to agencies to determine the need for a change and the potential impact.
Hawaii's state OSHA plan and federal OSHA have agreed on a tentative plan for concurrent jurisdiction until the state's budget woes subside and the state plan can maintain higher staffing levels. The change to the state plan's status -- on which the feds are seeking public comment as a proposed rule -- backtracks on an informal agreement the agencies reached more than a year ago to head off concurrent jurisdiction. But a source familiar with the issue says the move does not signal broader intent by OSHA to expand its jurisdiction in the states.