Government Safety Regulations

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Not quite sure who lit the fire at OSHA but the level of activity at the agency in the last two months is more activity than we have seen in the last several years combined. Now the question is likely to be whether or not any of this activity will result in completed actions. Here’s a look at the current activity:

One side says certain regulations hinder economic growth and pose a “burden” for companies. The other says those regulations protect workers’ health and safety. Sound familiar?

Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA and Dr. John Howard, Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), spoke recently at the 2013 National Worker Safety and Health Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

In a recently released draft report, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) proposes recommendations for substantial changes to the way refineries are regulated in California. Entitled “Regulatory Report: Chevron Richmond Refinery Pipe Rupture and Fire,” the CSB draft calls on California to replace the current patchwork of largely reactive and activity-based regulations with a more rigorous, performance-based regulatory regime – similar to those successfully adopted overseas in regions such as the United Kingdom, Norway, and Australia – known as the “safety case” system.

The Washington Post is reporting that the White House deliberately delayed rules affecting worker safety, the environment and the Affordable Care Act to prevent them from causing controversy prior to the election. Reporter Juliet Eilperin cited seven current and former administration officials in a lengthy article in the post, although none were identified by name.

Among the many items on the federal government’s recently-released fall regulatory agenda are nine belonging to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Two of them are in the final stage of rulemaking.

A worker at a Maine stone-crushing plant who was fired for making safety complaints will receive $6,000 in back wages, under a settlement reached between his former employer and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

OSHA has announced a request for information seeking public comment on potential revisions to its Process Safety Management standard and related standards, as well as other policy options to prevent major chemical incidents.

The government’s regulatory road is long, with many a winding curve – as shown anew in the fall regulatory agenda released last week by the Obama administration. Many of the regulations included have been in the works for years due to a variety of factors: a lengthy rule-making process, industry opposition, and, in some cases, delays by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).