Will OSHA speed up creation of new regulations?
June 18, 2012 by Fred HosierPosted in: Compliance, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, New rules and regulations, OSHA news
PDF What is the likelihood that, if re-elected, President Obama’s OSHA will rush through a bunch of new occupational safety standards?
Not likely, according to the head of OSHA, David Michaels.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) study earlier this year said that, on average, it takes eight years to enact a new OSHA regulation.
Michaels told reporters at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ Safety 2012 conference in Denver that OSHA thinks the GAO actually underestimated — it takes longer than eight years.
More importantly though, Michaels said OSHA doesn’t see a way to enact standards faster without legislation changing the process.
He called the time it takes to enact an OSHA regulation “the most painful part of my job.”
Michaels noted that many standards, such as permissible exposure limits (PELs) for hazardous substances, are out of date and they “don’t represent a level of safety.”
How many new regulations has OSHA enacted recently? There have been 11 new standards since 2002 (roughly one per year), with three of them since 2010 (once again, about one per year).
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Tags: David Michaels, new OSHA regulations, PELs, Safety 2012
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June 20th, 2012 at 10:42 am
OSHA has somewhat of a process to go through to complete the requirements to enact a new regulation but the one agency that needs to be reigned in is the EPA.
They really have no controls to enact new stringent requirements and it will only be under a new administration that understands the balancing act of regulations and the economy. Any new regulations by the EPA must go through the same process or something similar to what OSHA does. Not just mandate and enforce.
The EPA is out of touch and has no idea how to balance new regulations and keep our economy strong and competitive. I would go into some of the requirements they are enforcing on our contractors that make no sense around the country but don’t have time to write a book.