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.
OSHA's clear signal that it hopes to finish a landmark new rule tackling worker exposures to crystalline silica dust by early next year -- the agency's new regulatory agenda pegs February as the target -- means the almost-inevitable legal and political battles over the rule's specifics could play out during the Obama administration, likely easing the path for OSHA to ensure it gets fully implemented.
NIOSH experts have developed and tested a prototype called the “mini-baghouse” that the agency says can protect oil and gas extraction workers by controlling silica dust on hydraulic fracturing work sites. NIOSH presented research on the prototype Wednesday (Nov. 4) at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in Chicago.
Progressive groups want lawmakers to turn back a provision attached in the 11th hour of committee talks on fiscal 2016 Labor Department spending legislation that mandates an independent study of the epidemiological data underpinning OSHA's controversial proposed silica rule, along with another small business review -- but the fight may be irrelevant in the hectic closing weeks of September, with Congress barreling toward a possible government shutdown.
OSHA's long-planned rule to reduce workplace silica dust exposures faces tough new opposition from Republican appropriators on Capitol Hill trying to derail the contentious rule through appropriations, though a new round of budget gridlock similar to recent years would likely prevent such provisions from becoming law, congressional observers say.
NIOSH says researchers have found that attaching a regular shop vacuum to a dust-collecting circular saw can provide a “simple, low cost solution” to reduce exposure to hazardous dust when construction workers cut fiber-cement siding -- findings that come as OSHA works intently to finalize a controversial rule to reduce exposures to crystalline silica dust, which is a major concern in dealing with that type of construction material.
OSHA fully expects before the Obama administration ends to finalize and enact new regulations aimed at reducing workplace hazards from crystalline silica dust, OSHA's top non-career deputy told safety and health activists at a Maryland conference Wednesday (June 3).
A key organization of industrial hygienists has added to stakeholder calls, mostly among worker health activists and their Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, for the Obama administration to release for public review OSHA's stalled regulatory proposal to reduce occupational exposure to beryllium, but the White House remains reticent on the timing of the rule's potential publication.
A rule designed to reduce health hazards from inhalation of crystalline silica dust in the workplace will be completed in this administration, a top Labor Department official told an audience Tuesday at DOL headquarters in Washington.
A national umbrella group of worker advocacy organizations on Thursday (April 23) urged federal and state law enforcement officials -- including the Justice Department working in concert with OSHA officials -- to increase the number of criminal prosecutions brought in severe safety and health cases, particularly ones involving fatalities and alleged willful violations of the OSH Act.