A NIOSH workplace evaluation program would be significantly expanded in scope under a provision added to the mine bill prior to its passage by the House labor committee last week, allowing physicians, former employees, and possibly OSHA inspectors to request such evaluations for the first time. The provision also formally expands the types of hazards that can be addressed to include non-toxic hazards, such as musculoskeletal disorders, NIOSH chief John Howard told Inside OSHA.

Industry and union stakeholders are sharply divided over an unprecedented move by the Department of Labor calling for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to fix electrical violations at 350 facilities, as it is the first time that DOL has executed such an enterprise-wide effort and could portend the way it responds to such findings in the future.

Stakeholders are floating the concept of detaching the construction sector from the planned OSHA rule on injury and illness prevention and creating a separate program rule for the industry, which the agency's Directorate of Construction would oversee. The idea provided new fodder for discussion as OSHA wrapped up one of its last stakeholder meetings on the upcoming rule.

OSHA won't rule out using an upcoming illness and injury prevention program rule to compel employers to address ergonomics and other areas lacking specific standards, in what amounts to a signal to industry groups that one of their top concerns about the planned rule may come to fruition.

Both business and labor officials agree that workplaces must ensure training at every level for OSHA's planned illness and injury prevention program rule to be successful, but unions urge the agency to avoid a "worker behavior approach" and ensure safeguards that make it harder for employers to shift the blame for incidents to their employees.

OSHA said it will move straight to a proposed rule on injury and illness prevention programs, skipping the advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) stage, since it has already held stakeholder meetings and plans to hold a Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) review to address small business concerns.

As a mine safety bill with OSHA reforms was passed by the House labor committee last week, the Senate still has yet to introduce similar legislation and continues to discuss it on a staff level, sources say, adding that much work remains on the Senate side. A source asserted that some Senate Democrats appear open to negotiating the OSHA provisions.

OSHA received a funding hike to beef up its enforcement capacity in the fiscal 2011 Labor Department spending bill that passed a House Appropriations subcommittee July 15. The agency was allocated a total appropriation of $580 million in the chairman's mark, which is $7 million more than the administration's request and $21 million more than OSHA's current fiscal year level.

House Democrats are continuing their push to meld OSHA reform with legislation focused on mine safety, as a slew of OSHA provisions were approved in the bill passed by the House labor committee last week. The legislation attracted no Republican support in the committee and was passed in a 30-17 party line vote.

OSHA has sent its regulation adding a column tracking musculoskeletal disorders to OSHA recordkeeping forms to the White House, while some industry stakeholders are predicting that the rule will provoke legal challenges. Industry and small business groups also question the agency's rationale for not holding a panel to consult with small businesses on the impact of the reporting requirement.

The White House continues to push for national nanotechnology research, but in a resource-tight environment is asking federal agencies to coordinate their efforts and wipe out potential duplication. The Office of Management and Budget pegged nanotechnology as an area that warrants greater cross-agency collaboration in a recent memo urging agencies to cut 5 percent from their 2011 discretionary spending levels but to strategically protect certain programs. OSHA has been a non-funding participant in the interagency discussions, sources say.

Food suppliers won the initial round of a civil case in the first ruling of its kind over diacetyl, the chemical compound used as a flavoring in microwave popcorn and other foods that consumer and worker advocates blame for a rare respiratory ailment often called "popcorn lung." The judge, dissecting a variety of studies, ruled there was no scientific basis for claims in the lawsuit that microwave popcorn posed a health hazard to consumers.

Organized labor officials and NIOSH's research council criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's plan to back off last year's call for use of N95 respirators to protect health care workers from the flu, saying the proposal is a retreat from the agency's stance following the outbreak of the H1N1 virus last year. Meanwhile the American Hospital Association (AHA) endorsed the respiratory protection changes.

Stakeholders are mixed on OSHA's plan to modernize its recordkeeping system, in comments submitted to the OSHA docket. Industry raised some concerns about the need for the rulemaking, while other stakeholders emphasized the need for OSHA to use the effort to improve its data gathering efforts.

President Obama issued a memo last week to extend and strengthen an initiative focused on federal worker safety and health by creating aggressive performance targets. Stakeholders say they are pleased with the new initiative, which they believe is a step forward from its predecessor, although there is no enforcement authority attached.

Federal health officials are crafting a list of cleanup workers exposed to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill but have no plans to develop a more-extensive exposure registry that some House lawmakers are seeking, saying they are concerned that a registry would require a long-term resource commitment that policymakers are not willing to make at this time.

A House Appropriations panel is urging OSHA to issue a first-ever standard aimed at protecting workers from natural gas explosions, relaying the message in report language attached to the Labor Department spending bill that passed in the subcommittee July 15. The move comes weeks after the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) likewise urged OSHA to take regulatory action after deadly accidents in Connecticut and North Carolina.