Agenda shows what’s on the horizon for OSHA
Posted June 18, 2021
Summary by Reginald Whitaker, Oklahoma Steel & Wire, EHS Committee Chair for the American Wire Producers Association (AWPA)
On June 11, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The Agenda provides a look at the federal government’s plans to create or revise regulations in the next year.
| Rule | Timetable |
| Update to the Hazard Communication Standard | Informal public hearing date, September 21, 2021 |
| Powered Industrial Trucks Design Standard Update | Proposed rule, May 2021 |
| Walking Working Surfaces | Proposed rule, May 2021 |
| Welding in Construction Confined Spaces | Proposed rule, September 2021 |
| Personal Protective Equipment in Construction | Proposed rule, September 2021 |
| Infectious Diseases | Proposed rule, December 2021 |
| Amendments to the Cranes and Derricks in Construction Standard | Proposed rule, December 2021 |
| Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses | Proposed rule, December 2021 |
| Shipyard Fall Protection – Scaffolds, Ladders and Other Working Surfaces | Proposed rule, December 2021 |
| Lock-Out/Tag-Out Update | Proposed rule, January 2022 |
| Communication Tower Safety | Proposed rule, March 2022 |
| Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica: Revisions to Medical Surveillance Provisions for Medical Removal Protection | Proposed rule, March 2022 |
| Tree Care Standard | Proposed rule, April 2022 |
| Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica: Revisions to Table 1 in the Standard for Construction | Proposed rule, April 2022 |
| Discrimination Against Employees Exercising Rights Under the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 | Final rule, July 2021 |
| Procedures for Handling of Retaliation Complaints Under the Whistleblower Protection Statutes | Interim final rule, September 2021 |
Other upcoming rules are still in the early stages of development:
OSHA will propose that establishments with 250 or more employees provide electronic submissions of their injury and illness data from Forms 300 and 301. The agency currently requires submission of only Form 300A – a yearly summary of injury and illness data – instead of the two more detailed forms. The agency’s Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule, issued in May 2016, required those employers to submit all three forms. Under the Trump administration, OSHA changed the rule in February 2019 to require only Form 300A. A notice of proposed rulemaking is scheduled to be published in December.
Three OSHA regulations moved from the long-term list to the active one, with perhaps the most notable being the standard on infectious diseases, which now appears in the proposed rule stage. An NPRM is scheduled to be published in December, about six months after OSHA issued an emergency temporary standard on COVID-19 that focuses on health care workers. The other two regulations that moved from the long-term list:
- Process Safety Management and Prevention of Major Chemical Accidents (pre-rule stage)
- Shipyard Fall Protection – Scaffolds, Ladders and Other Working Surfaces (proposed rule stage)
Two regulations that moved to the long-term list from the active list are a powered industrial trucks update and OSHA’s rule on drug testing and safety incentive programs.
New on the active list is a regulation on preventing heat illness in outdoor and indoor work settings, listed in the pre-rule stage.
- Process Safety Management and Prevention of Major Chemical Accidents
- Emergency Response
- Mechanical Power Presses Update
- Prevention of Workplace Violence in Health Care and Social Assistance
- Blood Lead Level for Medical Removal
- Heat Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings
With ALL these items on the agenda it will be a very busy year for the EH&S group to keep up with not only the changes but the rewriting of programs and updating training on those changes.
Keep your eyes and ears open as OSHA has a new agenda, for inspections, can use drones almost at will, and their offices are getting back up to full operations.