Trade groups are pushing EPA to craft a “consistent approach” for setting de minimis exemptions in its TSCA risk management rulemakings, while also renewing pressure on the agency for more transparency on workplace exposure limits for the solvent 1-bromopropane (1-BP) in particular -- limits some say should have been crafted by OSHA instead.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is weighing whether to enact a bill unanimously backed by state legislators that would expand the state’s stringent petroleum refinery worker-safety standards to biorefineries and other facilities, in response to labor union concerns about a recent series of fires at renewable fuel production plants that caused serious injuries.
David Michaels, who led OSHA for nearly all of the Obama administration, says local authorities should issue their own workplace protections for heat rather than waiting for the federal agency to enact its proposed standard, noting that a final version is likely years away and probably would be scrapped under a second Trump administration.
Industry groups representing fabricated stone manufacturing companies are pressing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials to ease certain sections of their proposed permanent rules to protect workers from exposure to crystalline silica, including by relaxing requirements for respirators and providing more incentives for in-shop improvements.
OSHA chief Doug Parker is urging workers and safety advocates to use public comments on the agency’s proposed heat-illness standard to tell “stories” of dangers they and their co-workers have faced from excessive heat and how businesses have successfully addressed them, in order to illustrate the potential benefits of new safety measures.
OSHA is formally publishing its heat safety standard for indoor and outdoor work, over a month after first unveiling text for the long-awaited regulation, beginning a 120-day public comment period that would close just weeks before President Joe Biden’s term ends -- and thus leaves further work on the rulemaking to the next administration.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has approved a set of highly contentious regulatory amendments to its fall-protection standard for residential construction workers in order to meet federal OSHA’s requirements for such rules, despite reluctance from the panelists and employers’ claims that current state practices are more protective.
Several state-level sheriffs’ associations are warning OSHA that its proposed health and safety standard for “emergency responders” did not properly consider the costs it would impose, particularly for smaller search and rescue (SAR) organizations, echoing objections that a host of local firefighting companies has raised against the rule.
Lawmakers on the House workforce protection subcommittee used a recent hearing to express competing arguments about OSHA’s recent slate of regulatory actions including its controversial final rule on worker representatives in enforcement walkarounds and pending proposed safety standards for heat danger and emergency-response workers.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is preparing to implement its first-time indoor heat worker-protection standards -- which generally require employers to implement new employee-safety measures when indoor temperatures reach 82 degrees -- after they formally took effect July 23, following an expedited review by the state’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL).