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.

A Wisconsin company that protested paying extra worker’s compensation under the state’s safe place statute failed to convince an appeals court that federal law preempts law requiring employers to pay penalties when workplace safety violations cause injuries.

OSHA has withdrawn a proposed rule to amend its regulations for the federally-funded On-site Consultation Program, a free and confidential health and safety advice to small- and medium-sized businesses in the U.S., with priority given to high-hazard worksites.

Frustrated by the lack of federal regulatory action in the wake of the April 17 West, Texas chemical factory explosion, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released a new video to illustrate the scope of the hazard.

Among the new federal regulations expected to be issued today is one which is being challenged on the basis of the way the social cost of the carbon rule was calculated for it.