OSHA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are weighing an update to a 1994 agreement encouraging USDA food safety inspectors to report chemical hazards to OSHA, after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year noted gaps protecting workers, and advocates are pressing for new research on chemical hazards.
EPA is planning to consider workers' exposures to existing chemicals when it assesses substances' risks for possible regulation under the revised toxics law, noting that OSHA has acknowledged that its exposure limits for many chemicals are “outdated and inadequate.”
A labor safety group and North Carolina are questioning EPA's proposed approval of an alternative method for removal of asbestos-containing cement (A/C) pipe, which they say may be impractical to achieve and violate OSHA standards.
The Senate has unanimously approved compromise legislation that would reauthorize EPA's authority to collect industry fees to support timely pesticide reviews, in exchange for preserving for three years two Obama-era rules aimed at protecting farmworkers from exposure to pesticides that the Trump administration had moved to roll back.
EPA is seeking to strengthen its 2001 lead paint dust hazard standards that trigger abatement and protective measures in homes and facilities undergoing renovation and repair but the agency is declining, for now, environmentalists calls for a new definition of “lead paint” that informs federal efforts to reduce exposure to lead in paint.
Environmentalists' lawsuit challenging EPA's framework for reviewing new chemicals' risks, including to workers, appears to face legal hurdles because it challenges a policy that is not yet final but it nevertheless appears to have dissuaded the agency from following the novel process it floated last year to speed chemical reviews, industry and environmental attorneys say.
Despite plans to advance an Obama-era proposal to regulate a paint stripping chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), recently released EPA documents suggest the agency will not soon pursue other proposed TSCA rules restricting uses of two other substances blamed for risks to workers, a move that is worrying environmentalists.
EPA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in a critical new report is detailing challenges facing the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), including that leadership lacks authority to address board members' policy violations, and that the Trump administration's proposals to eliminate CSB are harming efforts to attract and retain employees.
EPA is further narrowing its approach for assessing the risks of the first 10 “existing” chemicals it is reviewing for possible regulation under the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), issuing problem formulation documents that preclude consideration of risks that programs administered by other agencies, such as OSHA, are already addressing.
After years of additional study and scientific review, EPA has again preliminarily found that formaldehyde poses leukemia and other cancer risks, according to three Democratic senators who also say the draft finding has prompted Trump EPA appointees to block release of the assessment and they are urging Administrator Scott Pruitt to quickly release it.