California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is divided over a pending proposal to substantially strengthen worker-safety rules for lead exposure in the construction sector and general industry, with several members agreeing with employers that the draft standard should be slowed and scaled back and others arguing it is far overdue.
A three-judge appellate panel appears skeptical of an Ohio contractor’s constitutional challenge to OSHA’s safety standard program, suggesting during recent oral arguments that the petitioner have a high bar to clear and questioning whether the case was intended only to challenge Supreme Court precedent on the so-called non-delegation doctrine.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could reverse -- or at least narrow -- the longstanding Chevron doctrine, which grants OSHA and other federal agencies discretion to reasonably interpret ambiguous statutory language.
The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is preparing to ask the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to renew its expiring information collection request (ICR) that allows industrial facilities to notify the board in the event of an “accidental release” that could be subject to investigation and prompt advice to EPA and OSHA on how to prevent such incidents.
The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is urging EPA to tighten its risk management program (RMP) to account for “reactive hazards” and extreme weather events driven by climate change, reiterating a swath of prior recommendations in its new report on a Gulf Coast chemical spill set off by 2020’s Hurricane Laura.
A scientist at EPA’s TSCA office says the agency’s collection of data on worker safety and chemical exposures differs in scope and purpose from industrial hygienists and employers’ methods, offering more insight into the program’s assessment process just as it is floating its first set of workplace safety standards in a newly proposed rule for methylene chloride.
A scientist at EPA’s TSCA office says the agency’s collection of data on worker safety and chemical exposures differs in scope and purpose from industrial hygienists and employers’ methods, offering more insight into the program’s assessment process just as it is floating its first set of workplace safety standards in a newly proposed rule for methylene chloride.
OSHA’s enforcement chief has issued a letter of interpretation stating that the process safety management (PSM) standard allows host employers to train contract workers on requirements for handling hazardous chemicals, holding that host-led instruction satisfies the rule as long as the contractor’s direct employer ensures its adequacy and maintains records.
EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff used the launch of the agency’s landmark TSCA risk-management proposal for methylene chloride to temper top officials’ prior statements that cast the rule and its worker-protection standards as a model for future chemical regulations under the law, saying key elements of the draft rest on case-specific factors.
EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff used the launch of the agency’s landmark TSCA risk-management proposal for methylene chloride to temper top officials’ prior statements that cast the rule and its worker-protection standards as a model for future chemical regulations under the law, saying key elements of the draft rest on case-specific factors.