OSHA) last week issued a final rule setting November 10, 2018, as the date for employers in the construction industries to comply with a requirement for crane operator certification. The final rule becomes effective November 9, 2017.
New California rules aimed at curbing the surprising amount of pollution coming from leaf blowers, lawn mowers and other small gas-powered machines cleared a final hurdle Monday, and are set to take effect on Jan. 1.
The requirements mark another step in the state’s long-running battle to reduce emissions from a category of small engines that have come to rival cars as a source of smog-forming pollution.
Reviews continue to pour in about President Trumps long delayed nomination of Scott Mugno to be the next Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. In addition to my original post, we have already checked in with Katie Tracy at the Center for Progressive Reform and on the business side, Eric Conn of the law firm Conn Maciel Carey.
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which will consider Mugno’s nomination, issued a rather cautious statement:
The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) may be preparing to take a significant step backwards in its advocacy for worker participation in preventing chemical facility incidents, including catastrophes like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In April, 2016 the CSB unanimously approved a 4-volume “Macondo Investigation Report” in response to the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon blowout that killed 11 workers, injured 17 and spilled 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The report contained a number of recommendations, including four recommendations calling for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to significantly enhance its regulations requiring worker participation in the employer’s safety program, and enhanced whistleblower protections for workers participating in safety activities.
In what the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is calling “a major victory for public health,” the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted 3-2 last week, to ban several harmful phthalate chemicals from plastic used in children’s toys and child care articles.
Phthalates are commonly used as a plastic softener in children’s toys and child care articles, such as teething rings.
The poultry industry and Republican lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to make a change that could have profound implications for both worker safety and food safety.
President Trump’s plan to end a key Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidy will cause health care premiums to spike and insurers to exit the market according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which estimated that the action would cause the federal budget deficit to rise by $6 billion next year and by $26 billion by 2026.
The Massachusetts Senate moved a step closer yesterday to joining 26 other states in extending OSHA safety standards to public sector workers. Bill S.2167, which has yet to be voted on by the Massachusetts House, would ensure that all state and local government workers are protected by the OSHA standards, which apply only to private sector workers.
EPA chief Scott Pruitt announced Monday that he will sign the paperwork to repeal the Clean Power Plan, an Obama administration rule to combat climate change rule by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal and natural gas power plants.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has missed the statutory deadline to report to the American people which U.S. counties exceed the national health standard for ground-level ozone, or smog.
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