June wraps up with extremely hot weather across much of the eastern half of the country. It’s a great time for safety professionals to keep extra eyes on our colleagues working outdoors or in non-climate-controlled spaces. Heat illnesses can happen quickly, so let’s all be super careful to protect our fellow employees. Here’s the latest regulatory news:
USDOT
The agency announced formal guidance for its new standards related to the imposition of potential criminal enforcement action for alleged violations of DOT regulations.
The notice promulgates a general policy, subject to appropriate exceptions and to the extent consistent with law, that when DOT is deciding whether to refer alleged violations of criminal regulatory offenses to DOJ, officers and employees of DOT should consider, among other factors:
• the harm or risk of harm, pecuniary or otherwise, caused by the alleged offense;
• the potential gain to the putative defendant that could result from the offense;
• whether the putative defendant held specialized knowledge, expertise, or was licensed in an industry related to the rule or regulation at issue; and
• evidence, if any is available, of the putative defendant’s general awareness of the unlawfulness of his conduct as well as his knowledge or lack thereof of the regulation at issue.
See the full guidance notice here:
Transport Canada
The ministry published a new safety circular that outlines steps that can be taken to increase safety while transporting lithium batteries. The document does not change the current regulations surrounding the issue, but is instead a safety notice. See it here:
Lithium Batteries Part 1: What You Didn’t Know About Transporting Them Safely
EPA
The agency issued an ICR related to the administrative governance of contractor access to data under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). See the ICR here:
OSHA
The agency is requesting an extension of the approval of the information collection requirements contained in Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals Standard. See the ICR here:
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