Comment Deadline Pushed on Dozens of Rules

OSHA pushed the comment deadline to Nov. 1 on 20 of the 25 proposed rules it published on July 1, including the enforcement of the General Duty Clause.
With that change, the agency seeks to codify the principle that the General Duty Clause doesn’t authorize the agency to “prohibit, restrict, or penalize inherently risky activities that are intrinsic to professional, athletic, or entertainment occupations.”
OSHA is also proposing to end its recordkeeping and reporting requirements for COVID-19 exposure in health care, as well as rescind its construction illumination requirements
Most of the other rules cover substance-specific respirator requirements.
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The latest chapter in a Cascade PBS investigation shows that two dozen doctors have each billed the Washington State’s Labor & Industries agency more than $1 million since 2020 for performing workers’ comp-related independent medical examinations (IME) and filing related paperwork.
L&I pays $728 for a standard IME and $1,319 for an IME done by a psychiatrist, according to data obtained in a records request.
The average age of these top earners is 74, two-thirds of whom have retired from providing direct patient care, according to L&I data.
Workers have filed dozens of complaints against examiners, questioning the practices and treatment recommendations of the often-older doctors conducting the examinations.
Critics of IMEs say examiners second-guess injured workers’ treatment providers, leading to delayed or denied treatment.
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The U.S. Labor Department announced the availability of up to $250,000 in Brookwood-Sago grant funding to support the delivery of education and training to the nation’s mining community to help them identify, avoid, and prevent unsafe and unhealthy working conditions.
Administered by the department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, the grants will fund education and training programs focused on workplace safety and health hazards faced where critical and other minerals are mined.
The closing date for applications is Sept. 19, 2025. MSHA will award grants on or before Sept. 30, 2025.
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Six bodies have been recovered from a Colorado dairy after rescue teams entered a confined space on Wednesday.
Officials have not yet disclosed details on the deaths.
The incident has been consistently referred to as a “confined space emergency” by emergency agencies.
Melissa Chesmore, spokesperson for the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, told the Associated Press: “We didn’t find anything criminal in nature. It looks like an accident.”
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