The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has freed up investigative resources by completing phases of two major investigations and is now in a position to probe last month's explosion at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, CA, which could eventually lead to safety recommendations to federal and California OSHA.

OSHA and NIOSH are voicing concern about exposures to respirable silica dust in stone countertop manufacturing, as OSHA continues analyzing data toward a potential final rule on silica before the end of the Obama administration.

The Obama administration is trying to reassure congressional appropriators of OSHA's intent to exhaustively review the wide array of data it has collected over the years as it attempts to move forward with a crystalline silica rulemaking, but the move is also generating deep concern among organized labor officials that detailed analysis could derail the rulemaking once Obama leaves office.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through a new report from NIOSH scientists, cites continuing rates of silicosis in urging “primary prevention” and medical monitoring of workplace silica exposures through a range of measures recommended by federal health agencies, perhaps adding further data OSHA could use in the agency's recently accelerated effort on a rulemaking to reduce silica risks.

Industry representatives, particularly from small business, have told OSHA they believe existing data on work-related infections among health care workers (HCW) is inadequate to justify an expansive potential rule tackling infectious diseases in hospitals and other patient care facilities.

OSHA recently clarified new requirements on worker amputations and eye loss under a stricter incident reporting rule that took effect this month, delineating the circumstances under which such events are reportable, with industry sources saying the interpretation is useful in some ways -- particularly whether blindness versus removal of an eye falls under the mandate.

OSHA alerts employers in a new publication to a variety of safety and health concerns -- none tied directly to silica exposures -- arising at hydraulic fracturing sites around the country, where the primary issue emphasized until now has been the potential for workers to develop silicosis or other diseases linked to inhalation of silica dust.

Federal chemical safety investigators have pinpointed “hydraulic shock” as the root cause of an accident several years ago in Alabama that resulted in a disastrous release of anhydrous ammonia -- findings that come as OSHA and other regulatory agencies collaborate on a sweeping initiative to mitigate chemical plant safety hazards.

OSHA should go back and start from scratch on its efforts to draft a new federal rule to reduce the risks of health care workers contracting infectious diseases, small business representatives say, calling for a more piecemeal regulatory approach that possibly exempts some segments of the industry and holds employers in compliance as long as they follow official guidance materials issued by federal agencies.

House Republican leaders blocked an attempt by the labor committee's top Democrat to shield an OSHA rulemaking on infectious diseases in health care from the procedural requirements in a newly passed bill that adds new layers of review to the federal regulatory process.