ASSE Announces its Top Legislative and Regulatory Issues for 2010

Feb. 2, 2010
The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) says that 12 key issues will dominate announced its legislative and regulatory agenda for 2010, which is aimed at ensuring that advances in occupational safety and health legislation and regulation reflect the experience, expertise and best practices of ASSE’s member environment, health and safety (EHS) professionals.

“As ASSE turns the corner to celebrate its next 100 years in safety, we will continue to work to ensure that any decision by federal or state government impacting the safety, health and environment of the workplace is based on good science and sound technology,” said ASSE President C. Christopher Patton, CSP. “ASSE works with legislators and regulators to enhance SH&E professional qualifications, safety and health program criteria, technical standards and other areas of hazard recognition and control that impact the SH&E profession.”

ASSE will work this year to advance the following legislative and regulatory priorities:

1. Reflect ASSE member experience and expertise in OSHA reform – Reform of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, including strengthening OSHA criminal and civil penalties ending in fatalities, is a key issue. ASSE intends to support a bipartisan approach to increased penalties that target truly bad actors and encourage corporate responsibility for setting a culture of safety at the highest level of management.

2. Provide OSHA coverage for state and municipal employees – In states that do not have their own state OSHA plans and therefore are covered by federal OSHA, state and municipal workers are not guaranteed protection under OSHA’s standards. This leaves more than 8 million public sector workers without the same workplace protections other workers have. ASSE members have worked hard to achieve such coverage in Florida and know the difficulties of achieving coverage state by state. ASSE believes a federal solution is necessary, and that OSH Act reform cannot be complete without federal protections for all U.S. workers.

3. Advance a safety and health program rule – OSHA regulations should encompass risk-based approaches that encourage employers to take overall responsibility for safety and health throughout their organizations and not simply to react to minimal regulatory mandates. Adoption of a rule would help ensure that all employers follow their lead. The promulgation by OSHA of a safety and health program rule is the key to advancing this approach by requiring employers to assess the risks in their workplaces and take a proactive approach in addressing those risks.

4. Develop cooperative ways to address regulatory change – Mechanisms are needed to help the EHS community overcome polarizing viewpoints that limit OSHA’s and MSHA’s ability to update standards appropriately, including permissible exposure limits (PELs). ASSE long has called for negotiated rulemaking to set exposure limits and legal protections for standard development organizations to pursue exposure limits through the voluntary consensus standard process. OSHA should establish a national stakeholder dialogue to build common ground in support of regulatory reform.

5. Advance global harmonization – OSHA’s rulemaking on global harmonization of U.S. hazard communications (GHS) must be completed as quickly as reasonably possible. GHS is a positive opportunity for OSHA both to advance workplace safety and health and to help ensure competitiveness for U.S. employers.

6. Support NIOSH’s effectiveness in advancing safety – NIOSH is the source for federal resources to support EHS research as well as EHS professional training and education. The NIOSH partnership with ASSE, its “Research to Practice (R2P)” initiative, the establishment of NORA research councils, “Prevention through Design” and other initiatives have done much to advance safety involvement in NIOSH. More is needed, however, such as finding ways through R2P to bring NIOSH research to the job floor. The ASSE Foundation now funds two Ph.D. candidates, but NIOSH support is needed to increase the number of safety Ph.D. programs as many safety Ph.D.s approach retirement. NIOSH support for safety training must reflect the importance that frontline safety professionals play in employers’ commitment to safety and health. And, NIOSH must work towards an appropriate balance between safety and health research funding.

7. Ensure safety agency commitments – In a difficult economic climate, ASSE will work to ensure that federal commitment to OSHA, MSHA, NIOSH, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) and other agencies that impact workplace safety and health is not compromised and that those who are appointed to agency leadership positions can build consensus among all stakeholders.

8. Build consensus on ergonomics – ASSE will continue to work toward achieving a consensus position on ergonomics that can overcome the long-standing polarization on this issue. An approach that is risk-based, encourages cooperation and avoids prescriptive, one-size-fits-all solutions that its members know will not work can serve as a consensus position. ASSE also can support industry-specific approaches that reflect the demonstrated best practices of its members in the industry, as current legislation to protect direct care nurses and health care workers from the risks posed by lifting in health care facilities achieves.

9. Include EHS in trade policy – ASSE encourages OSHA to take a role in ensuring that safety and health is part of U.S. trade policy so that U.S. corporate investments in EHS are not undermined by international competitors who compete without investing in these global responsibilities.

10. Engage in chemical management reform efforts – The current administration has signaled the intent to reform the nation’s management of chemicals through reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA). ASSE members, with experience and expertise in managing chemicals across every industry, will participate in the debate as this effort moves forward.

11. Encourage use of voluntary consensus standards – ASSE will work to encourage federal agencies to comply with the Technology Transfer Act's mandate to consider national consensus standards where feasible when engaged in rulemaking. Use of such standards, like ANSI/ASSE Z15 for safe motor vehicle operation, ANSI/ASSE Z117 for confined spaces and ANSI/ASSE Z490.1 for safety training will improve protections of workers and expedite rulemaking activities while reflecting the current technology and industry best practices.

12. Support third-party consultation – ASSE supports legislation or regulatory approaches that allow third-party safety audits of employers under strict requirements that ensure professionalism and maximize effectiveness, thereby expanding OSHA’s reach beyond the limits of its current enforcement and cooperative programs.

About the Author

Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith is the former content director of EHS Today, and is currently the EHSQ content & community lead at Intelex Technologies Inc. She has written about occupational safety and health and environmental issues since 1990.

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