A public policy work group is urging OSHA to take a lead role in addressing worker handling of chemicals and use of biomonitoring data to set strategies for reducing harmful environmental chemicals in people. The recommendations are part of a wide-ranging set of draft proposals, now open to public comment, compiled by a public policy dispute resolution group on behalf of federal agencies.

The Small Business Administration is urging OSHA to take seriously industry's concerns that the agency's proposed fall protection standard goes too far by including a “general duty” type enforcement clause, and improperly opens the door to using the standard to address combustible dust. But union officials want OSHA to go a step further and explicitly link the standard to regulation of combustible dust.

A recent decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) in the Summit Contractors case bolsters OSHA's longstanding policy of holding an employer responsible for the activities of its subcontractors, but industry sources say there are still many issues yet to be litigated, particularly how OSHA defines “controlling employers” and “creating employers.” The review commission followed recent court precedent and in the process reversed its earlier position on the issue.

OSHA reveals in an internal memo that it found violations in roughly 50 percent of the inspections conducted under an injury and illness recordkeeping National Emphasis Program, which the agency has since put on hold, but the agency has not released specific details about the number or type of violations uncovered. OSHA told regional administrators and state plans in the memo, obtained by Inside OSHA Online, that agency officials will present alternatives to OSHA chief David Michaels on criteria for sites to be inspected under a future, modified NEP directive.

OSHA has signaled it may hone in on a small number of chemicals as part of its reinvigorated effort to update decades-old permissible exposure limits (PELs), asking stakeholders to nominate those substances they think warrant the highest levels of priority.

Stakeholders say OSHA's new interim final rules on whistleblower protections provide advantages to employers by making burdens of proof more stringent on the complainant, but also offer whistleblowers an easier avenue to take their cases to court. OSHA published three rules Tuesday to implement provisions in statutes covering employer retaliation in the railroad, public transit, commercial motor carrier and consumer products industries.