The American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA) has lent its support to the chemical industry and other groups in their efforts to seek more robust federal regulation of chemicals. AIHA’s support follows the chemical industry’s recent announcement that it is open to substantial changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
EPA announced it is requesting comments on new information it has received about geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide. During geologic sequestration, carbon dioxide is injected underground for long-term storage. This technology can be used to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
EPA announced three Recovery Act grants totaling $20 million in funding for the SmartWay Clean Diesel Finance Program. These recovery act grants will fund the purchase of new, cleaner or retrofitted vehicles and equipment, protecting air quality and creating and retaining jobs in three communities across the country. The program works to reduce premature deaths, asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments, lost work days, and many other health impacts every year.
“The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) joins with other Americans in mourning the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy,” said ASSE President C. Christopher Patton, CSP.
“Senator Kennedy was a tireless champion for the safety and health of America’s workers. His leadership in encouraging often bipartisan efforts to advance workplace protections will be greatly missed by those with an interest in helping ensure positive and meaningful change in occupational safety and health.
One of the few barbs lobbed at OSHA chief nominee Dr. David Michaels has come from a blogger, not surprisingly. Steve Milloy, publisher of JunkScience.com, issued a press release in August stating: “Michaels runs something called the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) at the George Washington University. While its university affiliation and academic name would seem to lend it a modicum of credibility, in fact, SKAPP's origins are much more revealing.
OSHA reform legislation currently eliciting zero interest in both the U.S. House and Senate, due in no small part to the all-consuming healthcare reform World War III, will at some point, probably in 2010 or 2011, get serious consideration.
From the blog “OSHA Aboveground,” a post written August 3 by the blog’s anonymous agency careerist:
“It seems that we, as an agency, are sitting around holding our collective breaths waiting for an Assistant Secretary. With the nomination of Dr. David Michaels, and after having been stuck in neutral for almost a year (and something like 21/2 of the last 5 years), we're finally one step away from having some direction. For some of us who have been around for awhile, which direction isn't important, what matters is that we're moving, forward, left, right, heck even reverse is better than being stuck in neutral.”
“Those who have complained the past few years of very limited activity from OSHA and other federal agencies can complain no more. The past month or two has seen more activity from OSHA than was seen in several previous years combined,” writes Aaron Trippler, director of the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s Government Affairs Department, in his August 25 edition of the newsletter Happenings From the Hill.
EPA yesterday announced a series of steps to increase protections against and raise awareness of lead-based products in the environment and communities, particularly to prevent lead poisoning in children.
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