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.

OSHA should work to close identified gaps in regulations to better safeguard above-ground storage tanks, federal chemical safety experts looking into the circumstances of a 2009 gasoline tank explosion in Puerto Rico say.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has started offering infectious disease prevention training to airport workers with help from a federal grant, as it voices concerns about lack of education and protective equipment for workers cleaning cabins, handling wheelchairs and performing similar duties. OSHA is working on a comprehensive infectious disease standard, but that would only apply to the health care sector (see related coverage).

A powerful coalition of agribusiness trade groups urged House lawmakers Wednesday (Oct. 7) to pressure OSHA into reversing course on a controversial interpretation of the agency's rule to prevent chemical process disasters, just as congressional Republicans took OSHA to task for a field guidance they say vastly expands the rule's reach without any formal avenue for public feedback.

OSHA took a key step forward in its regulatory plan to require larger companies to electronically report workplace injuries and illnesses, with the data later being posted to an online database, by sending the rule for White House review -- a clear signal OSHA fully intends to issue the rule while time remains in the Obama administration.

A key Senate panel on government oversight will formally request that OSHA rescind several guidance documents that have far-reaching implications for the agency's rule designed to prevent chemical disasters, and then go back to the drawing board with a public rulemaking process, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) tells Inside OSHA Online.

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.

Industry sources say OSHA has been consulted regarding possible changes to the Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) for industrial accident prevention, and while EPA says the review is still on track, advocates are concerned officials may miss an announced September deadline for proposing revisions.

Vanessa Sutherland, the new chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and a former federal regulator, says she is already forging ties with top OSHA officials to talk about current and future policy recommendations that could help shape the regulating body's approach to facility safety.

OSHA has drafted early regulatory text creating new standards aimed at protecting emergency responders that brings into play elements similar to those in injury and illness prevention programs -- the first iteration of what officials hope will evolve, with stakeholder help, into an actual proposed rule in the coming years.