OSHA Moving Aggressively Under Obama

The agency will pick up the pace of rulemaking as well as beef up enforcement of safety measures.

By Martha Lynn Craver, Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter

July 14, 2009

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is moving on several fronts simultaneously, aiming to take advantage of a new administration and a supportive Democratic Congress to improve safety by moving ahead with rules that languished during President Bush’s administration and stepping up its inspections.

One example: The agency will soon start inspecting chemical manufacturers. OSHA officials want to make sure plants are complying with workplace safety rules aimed at preventing the kind of explosion that killed one worker and severely burned another at a chemical facility in West Virginia last year.

The agency, which falls within the Labor Department, won’t try to inspect all facilities, but industry sources believe it will visit several thousand by 2015. OSHA is developing a list of plants to be inspected, targeting those with safety issues and records of prior violations. Some inspections at small work sites could take only a day or two, while officials could take several months examining large facilities. OSHA is planning to hire more inspectors to help.

Efforts to prevent ergonomic injuries also are on tap. The agency’s standard for avoiding repetitive stress injuries was overturned by a Republican Congress under Bush, and OSHA is barred from coming back with an essentially similar rule under President Obama. But inspectors can use a more general safety clause, the “general duty clause,” to cite employers for hazards if they show an employer knew of a danger and didn’t take reasonable steps to fix it. Musculoskeletal disorders are the No. 1 injury in the workplace.

A new rule on workplace exposure to diacetyl, a butter flavoring additive, is coming soon. The additive has been linked to a rare, sometimes fatal, illness that has come to be called popcorn lung disease. It’s been identified in workers at plants that make microwave popcorn, but the effect of the rule would be wider. Diacetyl is found in cooking oils, bakery products and snack foods.

Employer groups say the rule is premature because scientists have yet to develop an adequate threshold for exposure. Some manufacturers already have or are planning to substitute an alternative to the butter flavoring additive.

A rule clamping down on combustible dust is a top priority, too. It would affect many solids that are ground into fine particles, fibers, chips or flakes that can cause an explosion if not handled properly. All sorts of industries would be affected: food, tobacco, wood, plastics, paper, pulp, rubber, furniture, textiles, drugs, dyes, metals and more.

The danger of combustible dust was brought into prominence by the explosion last year at a sugar plant in Georgia that killed 14 workers. It prompted the House to pass a bill calling for a combustible dust standard, but no further action was taken by Congress or the Labor Department. Since 1980, more than 130 workers have been killed and more than 780 injured in combustible dust explosions, according to OSHA.

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