OSHA Terminates COVID-19 Rulemaking

By Guy Burdick

On January 15, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) terminated its healthcare COVID-19 rulemaking (90 Fed. Reg. 3665).

The agency decided to focus its resources on developing an infectious diseases rulemaking for healthcare, describing the infectious diseases rulemaking as “the most effective and efficient use of agency resources” for protecting healthcare workers from occupational exposures to COVID-19.

OSHA issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) in 2021 to protect workers in healthcare settings from COVID-19. The ETS also served as a proposed rule for which the agency requested comments. OSHA received stakeholder input on the proposal during multiple comment periods and public hearings from June 2021 through May 2022.

The agency submitted a draft final COVID-19 rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget on December 7, 2022. President Joe Biden signed House Joint Resolution 7 into law on April 10, 2023, terminating the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

OSHA also issued a COVID-19 “vaccinate-or-test” ETS for all workplaces in late 2021. The following January, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of the emergency rule. The justices concluded that OSHA and the Department of Labor exceeded the authority granted by the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act when they issued the ETS.

EPA, OSHA agree to strengthen chemical safety efforts

OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined a memorandum of understanding (MOU) formalizing their coordination on the EPA’s work to assess and manage existing chemicals under Section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the EPA announced January 13.

The two agencies anticipate that better coordination under the MOU will result in improved workplace health and safety protections for workers using existing chemical substances under TSCA and the OSH Act, allowing for effective implementation of their national workplace and environmental protection statutes.

The EPA and OSHA will share information on:

• TSCA Section 6 prioritization, risk evaluation, rulemaking, and implementation efforts regarding chemical hazards in the workplace;
• Outreach and communication materials for stakeholders about EPA rules and OSHA requirements, including TSCA Section 6 and OSHA standards regulating the same chemical hazards;
• Inspections and enforcement activity under each agency’s areas of focus, complaints, inspections, and potential violations where mutual interest exists; and
• Protocols to ensure confidential information is being properly exchanged between the agencies when carrying out enforcement actions or otherwise protecting health or the environment.

OSHA establishes standards for workplace chemical hazards under the OSH Act, and the EPA promulgates regulations under Section 6(a) of TSCA that may share a similar purpose. Control measures required to satisfy the objectives of the two federal statutes may overlap or coincide, according to the EPA.

TSCA broadly regulates the use of chemicals, while standards under the OSH Act regulate health and safety in the workplace. TSCA covers a broader range of workers not covered under the OSH Act, such as volunteers, self-employed workers, and some state and local government workers.

Several OSHA standards have established workplace permissible exposure limits for toxic and hazardous substances, and the agency’s hazard communication standard sets out requirements for worker information and training about workplace chemical hazards.