Government Affairs News

ASSP recently expressed opposition to the inclusion of language in the House Farm Bill (H.R. 2) that it believes would compromise OSHA's Process Safety Management standard and create risk to workers and the public.

Mine Safety and Health Administration is now enforcing its revised standard governing workplace examination requirements at surface and underground metal/nonmetal mines. Learn what it means for mine operators and contractors.

NIOSH has developed a software designed to help mine operators more immediately measure and response to exposures to respirable crystalline silica.

ASSP and other safety groups want DOL to engage more stakeholders in a proposed rule that would expand the types of jobs young workers can perform.

A recent audit and report from the Office of the Inspector General calls for improvements in OSHA procedures to address underreporting of workplace-related serious injuries and fatalities.

ASSP is calling on OSHA to elevate the importance of fall protection management programs and advise employers to look to consensus standards such as ANSI/ASSP Z359 and ANSI/ASSP A10 for the latest industry practices.

OSHA is extending the compliance date for specific ancillary requirements of the general industry beryllium standard to Dec. 12, 2018. The extension maintain essential safety and health protections for workers, the agency states, while giving it time to work on a proposal that would clarify certain provisions of the standard and address employers’ compliance burdens.

OSHA has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that it says will better protect personally identifiable information or data that could be reidentified with a particular individual. This rulemaking would remove provisions of the agency's current recordkeeping rule.

ASSP is calling on Senate leaders to move ahead with the vote on the nomination of Scott Mugno as head of OSHA. Mugno was nominated in late October 2017 and has been approved twice by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Federal OSHA enforcement of its requirements for general industry and maritime under the new silica rule started on June 23, 2018. However, OSHA will assist employers that are making good-faith efforts to meet the new standard’s requirements during the first 30 days of enforcement.

OSHA has extended the comment period on its proposed crane operator certification rule until July 5, 2018.

The failure of some states to be in sync with the federal requirements, or those of other state plans, poses a compliance dilemma for employers and their safety and health consultant-advisors whose workplaces are subject to both federal OSHA and multiple state plan enforcement activities.

Since the 2016 passage of the Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, controversy has developed over the requirements under the Toxic Substances Control Act for the Environmental Protection Agency to make risk assessments and determine protection measures for workers. In December 2017, EPA held a public meeting to discuss the framework it proposes to use for assessing new chemicals.

"The best-performing companies employ occupational safety and health professionals to implement and manage safety and health programs throughout the U.S. and across the globe. These Recommended Practices can encourage more employers to embrace what ASSE members already know: applying the risk management principles inherent in safety and health management programs succeed in helping make workplaces safe and productive in companies of all sizes.

In an e-mail on Jan. 25, 2017, Bruce Lundegren, assistant chief counsel from the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, advised small business representatives about the Trump administration's "Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” memorandum, which was issued to heads of executive departments and agencies on Jan. 20. The memorandum "is designed to ensure that the President's appointees or designees have the opportunity to review any new or pending regulations."

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) – representing more than 37,000 occupational safety and health professionals across the globe – supports the mission of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and is deeply troubled that the CSB is targeted for elimination in President Trump’s budget blueprint for 2018.

Although the Respirable Crystalline Silica construction standard (29 CFR 1926.1153), becomes enforceable on Sept. 23, 2017, compliance officers are, for the first 30 days of enforcement, to evaluate good-faith efforts taken by employers in their attempts to meet the new construction silica standard.

NIOSH has released National Occupational Research Agenda: Second Decade in Review | 2006-2016, a new publication that highlights ten years of OSH research and accesses its impact.

On Aug. 1, 2017, OSHA went live with the data submission platform that certain employers will need to use when submitting their injury and illness (I/I) data to the agency by the revised Dec. 1, 2017, deadline. The requirements arise under OSHA’s electronic recordkeeping rule, which was promulgated in May 2016.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and National Safety Council recently hosted a roundtable on advanced driver assistance systems for commercial trucks. Despite the growing availability of these technologies, many trucking organizations and independent operators have not fully embraced them for their vehicles, NTSB says.