With OSHA's silica rule slated to be enforceable on June 23, the agency is planning to provide compliance assistance to employers that make “good faith efforts” to meet the general industry and maritime standard's requirements, and any citations issued will be subject to federal review during the rule's first 30 days of enforcement.
The Trump administration has moved several Obama-era initiatives that it had previously shelved back onto OSHA's regulatory priorities list, including measures aimed at limiting harms to healthcare workers, first responders, and tree and landscape workers, as well as a chemical hazard communication standard.
Faced with labor shortages that are preventing many jobs from being filled, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta signaled a “step back” in the Trump administration's strict zero tolerance approach on drug use in the workplace, opening the door to a possible softening in OSHA's plans to roll back an Obama-era rule that precludes company policies, such as drug testing, if they deter injury reporting.
OSHA has submitted a final version of the Trump administration’s plan to scale-back Obama-era beryllium standards to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, just as slag- and non-slag abrasive producers are intensifying their battle over which products would trigger the rule's safety requirements.
Six states operating under OSHA-approved state plans have yet to adopt their own rules to implement the Obama OSHA's March 2016 regulation updating limits for exposure to silica, raising legal questions and warnings from observers that it poses a significant “compliance dilemma” and jeopardizes workers' safety.
Manufacturers of slag abrasives used for industrial blasting, cleaning and other purposes are making an 11th-hour push to roll back OSHA's beryllium rule, releasing a new study that even non-slag abrasives, which some have suggested may be a safer alternative, contain beryllium, and that “unecessary regulations” impact the entire industry “regardless of material used.”
A top House Democrat is working with NIOSH to identify “credible workplace exposure data” on various abrasive blasting materials that could be subject to the Obama OSHA's beryllium rule, suggesting policymakers are seeking to evaluate a controversial industry split over whether certain abrasive materials are subject to the rule.