New federal health and safety data showing an increase in the number of workplace injury and deaths is prompting new calls from labor and other advocates for policymakers to strengthen OSHA's policies and practices, including issuance of long-awaited standards, increased enforcement and inspection funds and stepped up focus on immigrant, temporary and older workers, as well as those in the public and oil & gas sectors.
Facing industry litigation and congressional criticisms, OSHA has delayed until the end of the 2016 fiscal year implementation of its controversial policy for determining threshold concentrations for when some so-called Appendix A chemicals are subject to the agency's process safety management (PSM) standard for highly hazardous chemicals.
New OSHA guidelines for occupational safety and health management programs and industry-led OSH standards will be the topic of discussion at OSHA and industry events this week.
OSHA will seek public input on a proposed chemical exposure rule this week, while industry will outline standards for hazard communication and methods to implement new OSHA requirements.
Monday is the final day for the public to submit comments on OSHA’s new Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines, which offer a “proactive approach” to finding and fixing hazards within the workplace and improving communication with employees.
An OSHA committee meets the week of Feb. 15 to discuss a number of occupational safety and health issues, while an industry-led webcast will focus on preventing workplace injury with protective clothing.
The comment periods for several OSHA rules and initiatives close this week, while several industry webinars examine recordkeeping and reporting rules.
Implementing workplace health programs and meeting OSHA compliance requirements will be the main topics of discussion at a Boston conference and a series of webinars on OSHA this week.
OSHA on Tuesday announced that it is seeking public comment on new efforts to reduce paperwork and reporting burdens on states that maintain their own occupational safety and health plans.
OSHA is planning to release complete reporting numbers and a full analysis of injury reporting for the past year following implementation of new requirements one year ago mandating that any severe on-the-job injury be reported within 24 hours.