OSHA

OSHA is about to launch a year-long National Emphasis Program (NEP) of on-site inspections at several hundred facilities to review injury and illness records from 2007 and 2008. Details of the $1 million program were revealed at a July 15 meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health by Dave Schmidt, an economist in OSHA’s Office of Statistical Analysis.

OSHA is seeking nominations for people to serve on the 12-member National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health. NACOSH members advise the Secretaries of Labor and Health and Human Services on matters relating to the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Among the seven positions open for appointment are one management representative, one health professional representative, one safety professional representative, two public representatives and two labor representatives.

ORC Senior Vice President Frank White is quoted in an article devoted to OSHA reform that appears in the June 4 issue of the Bureau of National Affairs’ Occupational Safety and Health Reporter.  Mr. White was on a panel of experts at the 2009 American Industrial Hygiene Association conference, and the panel endorsed, among other ideas,  an employer risk assessment standard as a new regulatory approach for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.  

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis named House Education and Labor Committee senior policy advisor Jordan Barab as deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary for OSHA effective April 13, according to a statement released April 8 by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who chairs the committee. It is not known who will be chosen as the permanent assistant secretary for OSHA.

On April 1, OSHA published a new guidance document that provides employers with vital information for selecting respirators for employees exposed to  airborne contaminants. 

Employers with reported fatalities were not always properly identified and inspected under OSHA’s Enhanced Enforcement Program according to an audit released March 31 by the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). The OIG found that in 97 percent of the cases it audited OSHA failed to comply with at least one of the following EEP requirements:

A notice published in the March 27 Federal Register announced that the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health will meet in Washington, DC, on April 16–17, 2009. The meeting will be held in Rooms N–3437 A–C of the Frances Perkins Building, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20210.

The agenda topics for this meeting include:

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced March 17 the withdrawal of an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for occupational exposure to food flavorings containing diacetyl. The Labor Department said the action will facilitate OSHA's timely development of a standard to protect workers from bronchiolitis obliterans, a serious and potentially fatal lung disease associated with diacetyl exposure.

President Obama signed a $410 omnibus spending bill that includes more than $513 million for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Language in the bill states that the extra money for OSHA should be used to strengthen enforcement and increase the pace at which the agency sets new standards.

Former Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Thomas Stohler stepped down from the top job at OSHA Jan. 17. OSHA has issued the following statement about who is now leading the agency:

"The President has not yet nominated or identified a candidate for the position of Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health. In the interim, OSHA is operating without interruption under the leadership of Donald Shalhoub, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, the senior career official now in charge of the agency."