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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
