Chemical and other facility operators are urging EPA to reconsider its proposed rule strengthening the risk management program (RMP), charging that the agency has failed to consult adequately with its own experts, resulting in a plan that is “legally vulnerable” because the agency has underestimated its costs and failed to show it will reduce risks.
Environmentalists are touting new allegations that chlor-alkali industry workers face severe asbestos exposures despite safety guidelines, saying the claims bolster not only the agency’s proposed TSCA ban on the substance but also its overall decision to stop assuming workers will use protective gear in chemical risk evaluations.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are providing more explanation for their insistence that “exclusion pay” be omitted from the agency’s long-term COVID-19 worker-safety standard -- in part by telling Inside OSHA that adding it would unacceptably delay adoption of the rule -- amid a fiery backlash from unions and members of the agency’s standards board.
EPA has denied industry requests to extend comments on its proposed overhaul of the risk management plan (RMP) rule mandating safeguards against spills and releases of hazardous substance at many facilities, rejecting claims by several trade associations that 60 days is not enough time to fully analyze the “complex” proposal.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is demanding that agency staff add “exclusion pay” requirements into a pending final long-term COVID-19 worker-protection standard, further escalating the controversy over the decision by top officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration to cut those mandates over unions’ objection.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) has released its potential final COVID-19 worker-protection rules, including revisions to the prior draft’s controversial definition of “close contact” but maintaining the removal of mandatory “exclusion pay” for employees -- a move already drawing fire from labor unions that urged officials to reinstate the provision.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are advancing stringent new lead-exposure safety rules for the construction and general industry sectors, including a dramatically stricter exposure “action level” that triggers a suite of required actions by employers to protect workers, just as federal OSHA is eyeing the state rule as a possible model, sources say.
Labor groups and employers used a recent hearing on OSHA’s plans for a long-promised update to the process safety management (PSM) standard to set out competing demands for the rulemaking, while officials from the agency itself vowed to ensure the new policy will still be “compatible” with EPA’s pending revisions to its own facility safety rule.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed legislation to strengthen California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) worker-safety standards for heat and wildfire smoke, despite strong opposition by a coalition of employer and industry groups that argued the bill improperly sidesteps the normal rulemaking process.
OSHA has postponed its public hearing on potential changes to the process safety management (PSM) standard and extended the deadline for written comments, giving stakeholders more time to weigh in on a range of possible changes that include expanding the rule to cover oil and gas facilities, and updating its list of “highly hazardous” chemicals.