OSHA: Rule AimsTo Cut Employers’ Paperwork Load

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says it will release a final rule that will streamline its safety standards and reduce employers’ paperwork.

The changes, announced on May 26, are in step with a presidential executive order issued in January requiring federal agencies to simplify regulations and ease burdens on companies.

The new regulation includes changes to OSHA’s existing respiratory-protection standard and deletes several requirements for companies to transmit exposure and medical records to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

OSHA estimates the rule will save companies more than $43 million a year and trim the number of hours spent on paperwork.

Pam Hunter McFarland was a Senior Editor of ENR and her expertise was: Sourcebooks, Environment, Labor

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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