OSHA chief Douglas Parker says he is looking to employers’ comments to help fill gaps in OSHA’s data on workplace heat dangers and mitigation methods as the agency crafts a long-awaited rule on the subject, telling viewers on an Oct. 9 webinar that the wide scope of its proposed standard “raises lots of issues” that will require stakeholder input to resolve.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill that sought to ensure workers compensation benefits for heat-related injuries in the agriculture sector, objecting to the prospect of linking California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) and the state’s workers compensation agency, while citing several existing programs that he says already protect employees from heat.
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.
California lawmakers have passed bills to tighten existing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) standards, including requiring the installation of metal detectors in hospitals, adding the opioid overdose medication naloxone hydrochloride to workplace first-aid kits, and compensating outdoor workers who suffer heat-related injuries because employers violated safety rules.
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.
Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) standing toxicology committee are calling for new approaches to testing the dangers of human exposure to micro- and nano-plastics, particularly in aging veterans -- tests they say could lead to first-time occupational exposure limits for the materials.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has begun formal interagency review of OSHA’s long-awaited plan to set a nationwide heat illness and injury prevention standard, after years of development and repeated calls from worker-safety advocates for officials to quickly complete the rulemaking as global temperatures have spiked.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are scrambling to revise and resubmit their landmark but controversial new indoor heat worker-safety rules in time for the expanded requirements to take effect in late July, assuming the agency’s standards board will approve them at a June 20 meeting.
OSHA used a recent meeting with its advisory panel on construction issues to preview the “structure” of its impending heat illness and injury prevention standard, highlighting how it plans to identify heat hazards in the rule, set triggers for action, and require emergency response planning and heat condition monitoring, among other elements.
The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is calling on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to expand its call for data on firefighters’ exposures to wildfire smoke, pointing to research needs on the effects of those exposures, while urging both NIOSH and OSHA to craft clearer guidance for employers.