EPA has unveiled a proposed TSCA risk management rule for carbon tetrachloride (CTC or CCl4) that would allow uses that it says represent “essentially all” annual production of the solvent to continue indefinitely if facilities meet strict new worker protection mandates -- as well as a bar against increasing air emissions to surrounding communities.
OSHA has unveiled its final rule re-establishing electronic recordkeeping and reporting mandates for many employers, largely standing behind the 2022 proposal while narrowing several sector-specific exclusions that unions and their allies criticized in public comments.
OSHA has sent a final rule expected to re-establish Obama-era electronic recordkeeping and reporting mandates to the Federal Register for publication, appearing to cut off long-stayed litigation over the Trump administration’s rollback of those requirements while setting the stage for a potential court challenge from employers.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) will publish its long-awaited proposed update to its 50-year-old standards for silica dust in the July 13 Federal Register, starting a 45-day public comment period and setting dates for two in-person public hearings.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has proposed a long-awaited update to its 50-year-old standards for silica dust, advancing a rulemaking process that has been in progress for many years but hit repeated delays over the intervening years, despite OSHA enacting a parallel update to its own silica rules in 2016.
OSHA is formally asking representatives of small businesses and government entities to weigh in on its development of a long-awaited nationwide standard for heat danger, through a Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) process it plans to hold in the coming months -- a major step toward release of a formal proposal.
OSHA is seeking to release by the end of this month long-awaited final rules on both electronic recordkeeping mandates and COVID-19 infection controls in healthcare facilities, alongside several proposed policies, while delaying other rulemakings from their previous timelines -- some by over a year, according to its latest Unified Agenda of rulemaking actions.
Trade association officials, attorneys and individual business owners are warning EPA of “massive” complications from its proposal to phase out methylene chloride or mandate strict worker protections for its use, saying that many firms or entire sectors see no ready substitute for the solvent, and others have no way to separate uses subject to the rule from exempt ones.
EPA is poised to propose its TSCA rule governing the solvent perchloroethylene (PCE or perc) after a draft version cleared White House review on June 1, an action that comes less than two months after the agency released its methylene chloride plan and could show how broadly it intends to apply that rule’s strict approach to worker protections.
Andy Levinson, head of OSHA’s directorate of standards and guidance, told a May 31 National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) meeting that the agency is “on the cusp” of initiating a Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) consultation for its nationwide heat standard, just hours before the panel approved its own recommendations on the rulemaking.