Overlapping jurisdictions

Independent of these centers, the FDA also has overlapping jurisdiction with several other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms the Federal Trade Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency. 

The Federal Trade Corranission (FTC) has jurisdiction over the advertising of nonprescription products that are marketed in interstate commerce. Although the FTC has a very powerful law, the agency can handle only a small percentage of the violations it detects. The Postal Service (USPS) has overlapping jurisdiction over products sold by mail. The USPS also has a strong law but has not pursued falsely advertised health products for more than 10 years. 

Because many mines have railroad tracks and/or rail yards on their property to convey materials to and from their mines, potential jurisdictional conflicts between MSHA and the FRA do arise. A common example is MSHA s attempt to impose its training requirements on railroad employees because MSHA interprets the employees conduct as a mining function. By contrast, the FRA may interpret the same employees conduct as a railroad function that does not require mine-specific training. Despite the relative frequency of such debates, there are no formal memoranda between MSFIA and the FRA regarding issues of overlapping jurisdiction, nor are there established processes to resolve jurisdictional disputes. When conflicts do arise, they are generally worked out between the FRA s Office of Chief Counsel and the Department of Labor s Office of the SoHcitor. However, this is not always the case, and any mine operator who may have to contend with potential conflicts between the FRA and MSHA should be prepared before they arise. 

The control and regulation of indoor air quality are influenced by individual property rights and a complicated mosaic of federal, state, and local government jurisdiction with conflicts, overlaps, and gaps in addressing these issues. Table 23-3 shows a large number of agencies and departments involved in indoor air quality control efforts at the federal level. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) was enacted by Congress in 1970 and established tlie Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which addressed safety in tlie workplace. At tlie same time tlie USEPA was created. Both USEPA and OSHA are mandated to reduce tlie exposure of Itazardous substances over Umd, sea, and air. Tlie OSH Act is limited to conditions that exist in the workplace, where its jurisdiction covers both safety and health. Frequently, both agencies regulate tlie same substances but in a different manner as they are overlapping environmental organizations. 

This section is based primarily on regulations in the United States, not because these are the best but because, in toto, they are the most comprehensive. In many respects they are a complex mixture of overlapping laws and jurisdictions, providing unnecessary work for the legal profession. At the same time few, if any, toxic hazards in the home, workplace, or environment are not addressed. 

It is noteworthy that comparisons of existing assessment schemes reveal dissimilarities in the use of extrapolation methods and their input data between different jurisdictions and between prospective and retrospective assessment schemes. This is clearly apparent from, for example, a set of scientific comparisons of 5% hazardous concentration (HC5) values for different substances. Absolute HC5 values and their lower confidence values were different among the different statistical models that can be used to describe a species sensitivity distribution (SSD Wheeler et al. 2002a). As different countries have made different choices in the prescribed modeling by SSDs (regarding data quality, preferred model, etc.), it is clear that different jurisdictions may have different environmental quality criteria for the same substance. Considering the science, the absolute values could be the same in view of the fact that the assessment problem, the available extrapolation methods, and the possible set of input data are (scientifically) similar across jurisdictions. When it is possible, however, to look at the confidence intervals, the numerical differences resulting from different details in method choice become smaller because confidence intervals show overlap. 

Here again industry perceives EPA s broad policy statements overlapping with USDA. Although not commented on, industry should also feel concern about FDA s jurisdiction. FDA has already defined bovine interferon as an animal drug and not a biological. If interferon, therefore all lymphokines, are animal drugs, can vaccines be far behind ... 

To fulfill its charge, the committee met five times over a 1 -year period and was briefed by stakeholders. To address its first task, the committee reviewed the offshore wind farm environment and identified hazards unique to offshore wind farms. Next, the committee compared hazards of offshore wind farms with those of the offshore oil and gas industry. For its second task, the committee examined the jurisdictional authority of relevant federal agencies and the regulatory approaches offered by each and determined whether gaps or overlaps of jurisdiction exist. For its third task, the committee evaluated the current regulatory framework and provided options for enhancing regulations for worker health and safety on wind farms on the OCS. 

The committee s charge was to assess the U.S. Department of the Interior s (DOFs) approach for regulating the health and safety of wind farm workers on the outer continental shelf (OCS). The committee s three main tasks were to identify unique risks to worker health and safety on wind farms as compared with oil and gas operations on the OCS (see Chapters 2 and 4), to identify any gaps or overlaps in jurisdictional authority (see Chapter 3), and to evaluate the adequacy of and recommend enhancements to current regulations for worker health and safety on OCS wind farms (see Chapters 3 and 5). 

Each authority was created by different laws that delegated different functions to different agencies at different times. BSEE, the U.S. Coast Guard, EPA, and the Department of Transportation all have their own areas of jurisdiction which sometimes overlap. For example, BSEE regulates production safety systems and related firefighting, but the U.S. Coast Guard regulates personnel health and... 

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