OSHA Releases Regulatory Priorities for 2010 – Part 1

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have recently made public their Fall 2009 Regulatory Priorities.  This list represents the risks, hazards and regulatory changes that they feel warrant the greatest attention whether due to changing circumstances in the workplace, or as a result of an increase in reported incidents, violations or injuries.  These Regulatory Priorities are of interest to risk managers across almost every industry, not simply because they give an indication of where future government legislation regarding work safety might be headed, but also because they can suggest areas that a company’s current safety policy might have neglected or not seen from the same perspective.

Concentrating on OSHA’s regulatory efforts in terms of altering or strengthening their current policies, there are a few areas where risk managers can expect to see changes in the coming months.  A proposed rule from the Administration in January of 2010 will update regulations concerning the recordkeeping of musculoskeletal injuries, with the aim of altering the current OSHA 300 Injury and Illness Log to be better able to track them.  The end goal is to produce clearer statistics concerning this persistent workplace injury for both OSHA and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

OSHA is also looking to bring to a conclusion a project which has concentrated on creating a common system for communicating information about potentially hazardous chemicals.  Dubbed the Global Harmonization System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), it will serve as the new standard to which OSHA’s current Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) will conform.  The hope is that a more information rich and specific system will improve the utility of material safety data sheets.  This initiative is planned to begin the hearing process at the end of March 2010.

The final regulatory change which doesn’t stem from a specific industry issue is with regards to Subparts D and I dealing with Walking and Working Surfaces.  Focusing outside the construction industry, the changes planned to be made by this proposal – which will also be released to the public in March 2010 – will be sweeping enough to prevent as many as 20 deaths a year from falls, trips and other related workplace accidents.  OSHA also hopes to be able to reduce up to 3,500 serious injuries that occur along the same lines.

While the latter two initiatives are somewhat more directed towards certain areas of the working world, the changes to musculoskeletal injury reporting affect everyone.  Not only will employers be held more accountable when it comes to accurately describing this class of injury in an incident report, but it also points to future changes to be made by OSHA as a result of the critical statement released earlier this year outlining how many businesses fail to file the necessary paperwork with the Administration following an accident.  The Injury and Illness Log change is likely just the tip of the iceberg in terms of OSHA tightening their grip on injury reporting standards.