Some safety and health stakeholders argue that cost-benefit data included in OSHA's newly proposed crystalline silica standard show undue pressure on the agency to conduct economic analyses of new regulations that ultimately do not factor into whether it moves forward with key rulemaking priorities.

Industry sources say OSHA's newly released proposed rule to reduce worker exposures to crystalline silica, given its breadth across business sectors and the reach of the standard, could represent the biggest OSHA proposed regulation in terms of impact on business since the agency's abortive effort to regulate ergonomic hazards in the late 1990s.

OSHA released its long-awaited proposed rule tackling crystalline silica exposures on Friday (Aug. 23), rolling out a comprehensive regulation that if eventually adopted would cut the permissible exposure limit to 50 micrograms of respirable crystalline silica per cubic meter and take broad measures to limit worker exposures across industries.

OSHA faces a 90-day deadline to start collecting comments on possible gaps in the agency's process safety management (PSM) standard, as well as controversial exemptions to the rule for retail and commercial-grade operations, under a sweeping new executive order from President Obama.

A key public interest group is pressuring OSHA to use the general duty clause of the OSH Act to enforce limits on resident physician work hours to battle fatigue and related hazards, after the agency denied the group's petition for formal regulatory action on the issue for the second time in a decade and deferred to an outside accrediting group. The organization, Public Citizen, also wants OSHA to ramp up enforcement of whistleblower laws to counter retaliation against doctors who lodge safety and health concerns over lengthy work periods.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) issued an executive order Wednesday banning the use of flammable gases to conduct “gas blows” by power plants in the state, as OSHA continues to face pressure to draft a fuel gas standard. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a proponent of regulatory action on the issue, praised the move but decried the lack of federal OSHA guidelines and procedures for handling natural gas.

Worker safety and health issues should play a greater role in response plans to national emergencies, a work group of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health informally suggested at its recent meeting. The panel has asked OSHA and NIOSH, as part of their upcoming assessments of “lessons learned” from the Gulf oil spill response, to consider whether the federal national response plan should be modified to elevate worker safety and health considerations.

– Christopher Cole

The American Medical Association sent a letter to OSHA chief David Michaels criticizing a petition sent to the agency early this month from three worker advocacy groups urging regulatory action to limit medical resident work hours (see story).

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has undergone a major internal reorganization and has tapped longtime staffer Daniel Horowitz to the newly created position of managing director. Horowitz will report to the CSB chair and oversee all aspects of CSB operations -- including investigations, studies, recommendations, incident selection, congressional and public affairs, financial operations, human resources, information technology, and administration.

Worker safety advocates are engaged in a grassroots effort to shore up support among lawmakers to include sweeping OSHA reforms as part of any mine safety bill that moves through Congress this year, sources say. A congressional Democratic source acknowledged that lawmakers are divided on the issue as including the OSHA language complicates efforts to get mine legislation passed.