The Energy Department (DOE) has reopened the public comment period on proposed sweeping changes to its worker safety and health program aimed at expediting the deployment of advanced nuclear reactors in line with a Trump executive order, setting March 23 as the new comment deadline.
The Agriculture Department (USDA) is proposing to increase the line speeds for processing poultry and swine following studies last year that found only a limited association between faster slaughterhouse line speeds and increased worker injuries, a move that is drawing praise from meatpackers but opposition from labor.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and several of her Democratic colleagues are pressing Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and OSHA head David Keeling to explain why the agency is proposing to roll back several worker protection standards and has reduced enforcement efforts.
Petroleum refiners and chemical manufacturers are urging OSHA to ease compliance in a pending proposal to amend 2016 updates to the agency’s fall-protection requirements, asking OSHA to either repeal requirements for personal fall protection systems or grandfather in the use of cages or wells on existing fixed ladders.
EPA is poised to release its proposal scaling back the Biden administration’s Risk Management Program (RMP) rule, a measure that will spark heated debate as environmentalists charge the measure guts crucial protections from industrial incidents while industry groups say it is needed to end the “regulatory whiplash” that characterizes the policy.
OSHA is extending by four months compliance deadlines in its revised hazardous communications standard (HCS) because officials are still crafting guidance for both the regulated community and agency personnel, a move that is drawing praise from chemical distributors that have been pressing for the pending guidance.
OSHA has corrected “several inadvertent errors” in its 2024 hazard communication standard (HCS) that it identified following a previous technical amendment to the rule, including minor errors in the regulatory text as well as appendices to the standard.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has announced plans to revise the Biden-era silica rule, drawing cautious optimism from industry groups that are challenging the rule in court that the changes could resolve their issues, although the groups say MSHA has not yet provided any details to be certain.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are attacking OSHA’s proposal to remove medical evaluation requirements from its respirator standard, while offering recommendations to help ensure the standard is as protective as possible should OSHA proceed with its planned changes.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is raising concerns that OSHA’s plan to modify several substance-specific respirator standards could cause unnecessary confusion for employers because EPA has referenced at least one of the standards in its chemical risk management rules and is urging the two agencies to ensure they coordinate.