Government Safety Regulations

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The FAA and OSHA have issued a final policy for improving workplace safety for aircraft cabin crewmembers. While the FAA's aviation safety regulations take precedence, OSHA will be able to enforce certain occupational safety and health standards currently not covered by FAA oversight.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and a coalition of civil rights groups filed a formal petition yesterday urging OSHA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve worker safety in poultry and meatpacking plants, contending that federal policies allow workers in these facilities to operate in hazardous conditions that often leave them with disabling injuries, illnesses and pain.

With Congress failing to pass gun control legislation in the wake of the Newtown Conn. and other shootings, the Obama administration yesterday imposed new gun control measures by way of executive actions.

Among those who will be directly affected by OSHA’s proposed rule on crystalline silica exposures will be small businesses and their employees in industries like dental laboratories, foundries, and construction.

OSHA's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica has been submitted for publication in the Federal Register. The NPRM is OSHA's formal notice of regulatory action related to Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica. This is a proposal, not a final rule.

OSHA has issued 14 notices of unsafe or unhealthful working conditions to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, following an inspection at Boston's Logan International Airport. The inspection was begun earlier this year as part of OSHA's Federal Agency Targeting Inspection Program.

Reactions to OSHA’s proposed rule to protect workers from exposure to crystalline silica have come swiftly from the EHS community, along with the industry and business sectors.

OSHA took industry and EHS professionals by surprise late Friday by announcing what some call a long-overdue proposed rule to  lower worker exposure to crystalline silica – a substance that causes cancer, silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and kidney disease in those who are exposed to it.

The American Trucking Association (ATA) lost its bid to have U.S. Transportation Department hours-of-service (HOS) regulations overturned by the Court of Appeals in Washington earlier this month. A three-judge panel most of the arguments made by the ATA as “highly technical points best left to the agency.”

A lawsuit filed by the Indiana Department of Labor alleges that Indiana Bell Telephone Co., an AT&T subsidiary, “has a practice and policy” of suspending employees after they report work-related injuries.