Rulemaking process.OSHA

Reacting to a recent decision by the Office of Management and Budget s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to extend the Executive Order review of the standard, the AIHA called upon OIRA to finish its review without additional delay so OSHA can begin the public rulemaking process on a comprehensive standard and issue the rule as quickly as possible. 

Steel erection standard, developed in concert with industry and union groups, preventing 30 fatalities and 1142 injuries annually and saving employers nearly 40 million a year, issued. It is the first OSHA safety standard to be developed under the negotiated rulemaking process. 

Two disasters in 2008 generated similar pressures on OSHA to kick its moribund rulemaking process into gear, but to less effect. On February 8, 2008, the Dixie Crystal sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Ceorgia, exploded in a fireball... 

OSHA s proposed rule, Confined Spaces in Construction, may be a final rule by the time you read this. If it is not final, it will be very soon. (Note On November 14, 2014, the Confined Spaces for Construction final rule reached the White House s Office of Management and Budget (0MB). The 0MB usually takes about 90 to 120 days to review and approve rulemakings for publication in the Federal Register, but the review process can also be delayed. Watch JJKeller.com/cmsc for developments. 

In a letter to OMB Director Jacob J. Lew and Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, the AIHA warned g industry groups may be i using the review process I to delay rulemaking and I lobby OMB to pre-deter-" mine key issues involved with OSHA s proposed rule, such as exempting the construction industry from the regulation. 

OSHA has commenced rulemaking to develop a combustible dust standard for general industry. Combustible dust can cause catastrophic explosions like the 2008 disaster at a sugar refinery that killed 14 workers and seriously injured dozens more. Deadly combustible dust fires and explosions can be caused by a wide array of materials and processes in a large number of industries. Materials that may form combustible dust include wood, coal, plastics, spice, starch, flour, feed, grain, fertilizer, tobacco, paper, soap, rubber, drugs, dyes, certain textiles, and metals. While a number of OSHA standards address aspects of this hazard, the Agency does not have a comprehensive standard that addresses combustible dust. 

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