NAM: Increase Manufacturers’ Visibility into EPA–OSHA Relationship

Manufacturers need greater visibility into the relationship between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the NAM said at a recent Environmental Law Institute event.

What’s going on: Manufacturing in the U.S. would benefit from those “conversations … [being] more transparent and provided on the record so that manufacturers can have more insights into OSHA’s input into risk-management rules when options are being considered,” said NAM Director of Chemicals, Materials and Sustainability Policy Reagan Giesenschlag during a risk-management panel this week.

• The panel on the Toxic Substances Control Act was part of the ELI’s “TSCA Reform—10 Years Later” Conference.
• The NAM’s comments on the EPA–OSHA relationship came in response to a question to the seven panelists by moderator Martha Marrapese about TSCA Section 6 and whether the EPA is “protecting workers in [these] risk-management rules or … taken an overly expansive role in regulating the workplace.”

Room for improvement: The two agencies could make other enhancements to their relationship when it comes to risk management, Giesenschlag told the audience.

• “Some of that would be more consistency, maybe a framework or reliable rules of the road, so that stakeholders know what to expect and what information should be provided to the [EPA],” she said.
• “Inconsistencies in some of the risk-management rules that we’ve seen so far are creating confusion and increased complexity that make [them] difficult to implement.”

Stop creating confusion: Giesenschlag added that duplication or inconsistencies in workplace safety regulations “creates a lot of confusion with those safety professionals trying to implement [the agencies’] requirements.”

• To mitigate the confusion, the Environmental Protection Agency should adopt standard definitions and terminology across all risk-management rules that is fully consistent with existing occupational health and industrial hygiene regulations and frameworks.
• “When wording is just slightly different and you’re looking at your risk-management plan, those are the kind of interpretations that those safety professionals are [navigating] when put[ing] their safety plans together at a facility,” she concluded. “So I think more consistency—especially around definitions of terms—could be really beneficial.”