A top OSHA official says companies’ efforts to exceed compliance with EPA regulations and pursue sustainability as a core business concept provide a model for how OSHA wants firms to “race to the top” on strengthening worker safety protections, asking an agency advisory panel for advice on how to improve safety and health management.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is proposing a rule that would require industrial facilities to quickly report to the CSB certain accidental chemical releases, a measure that when finalized could fill in gaps left by the Trump EPA’s rule rolling back the agency’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) program.
The safety advocacy group Food & Water Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) aiming to force release of data underpinning the agency’s final rule easing swine slaughter inspection mandates, a policy that the group has warned poses major risks to workers.
A chemical industry group has told California regulators that while it has found one “possible” safer alternative to methylene chloride in paint and varnish stripping products, it is not clear whether the alternative is safe enough to win state approval, highlighting the difficulty regulators face as they seek to ban such products due in part to worker risks.
OSHA plans to hold a stakeholder meeting next month to hear input from companies on leading indicators used to preemptively address workplace health and safety, planning to use the information it receives to develop additional tools that might assist employers with taking more preventative and predictive steps to protect worker safety.
OSHA in a new final rule is certifying two “quantitative fit” tests for ensuring respiratory equipment complies with its respiratory protection standard, giving employers new options that the agency says can be completed more than twice as quickly as prior methods and potentially enabling major time savings for firms with large workforces that use masks.
The White House has approved two OSHA measures aimed at revising portions of the Obama administration’s final beryllium rules for the construction and shipyard sectors but without repealing them, a move that is likely to spark heated opposition and resumed litigation from key industry groups.
Worker and other safety advocates are warning they might sue the Agriculture Department (USDA) over its just-issued rule easing swine slaughter inspection requirements and increasing line speeds, arguing the measure will increase risks to workers that already face some of the highest workplace injury rates in the country.
OSHA is facing a stakeholder battle as it proceeds with its plan to drop a rulemaking to rescind ancillary provisions from its beryllium rule for the construction sector and instead tailor the provisions, with industry groups suggesting they may sue as the agency lacks evidence for a threshold finding while health groups are citing studies backing the effort.
OSHA this week unveiled a new voluntary alliance with three major poultry sector trade associations in a bid to allay safety concerns over Agriculture Department (USDA) efforts to ease line speed requirements at processing plants, though labor advocates are strongly criticizing USDA’s actions and calling for stepped-up OSHA scrutiny.