ALERT requests standard interpretation for OSHA cold/flu exemption

July 7, 2022.  ALERT and allies requested a letter of interpretation from OSHA of 1904.5(b)(2)(viii), an exemption to recording and reportability of an illness, which states an employer is “not required to record illnesses or injuries if… [t]he illness is the common cold or flu.” Specifically, ALERT asked OSHA for guidelines for employers to determine whether the common cold and flu is the source of an employee's illness – or an occupational exposure to oil or chemicals with initial symptoms that mimic symptoms of common colds and flu.

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Court rules employers have no legal duty to initiate worker health monitoring

November 3, 2022. In the multi-district litigation brought by thousands of workers injured during the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster response, a court in the Eastern District of Louisiana ruled that BP had no legal “duty” to initiate a worker health monitoring program. Judge-made law prevails in future disasters until either the regulatory agencies or Congress establishes a duty to conduct health monitoring of emergency responders.

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ALERT proposes worker health and public health monitoring units

December 7, 2022.  ALERT Director Riki Ott presented at the annual Northwest Area Planning Summit, hosted by Regional Response Team 10 (RRT 10) and the Northwest Area Committee (NWAC) to solicit ideas for updating NWAC’s plan and to identify volunteers to coordinate task forces. Ott proposed to update the NW Area Contingency Plan (NWACP) with training and monitoring protocols to assess short- and long-term harm to human health from oil spill exposures.

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RRT 10 and the Northwest Area Committee charter a 2023 Health & Safety Task Force, make Ott the chair

February 3, 2023. The RRT 10 Executive Committee and the NWAC selected Dr. Ott’s proposal and chartered a 2023 Health and Safety Task Force to determine the need for, and how to, incorporate a worker health monitoring unit and a public health assessment unit into the NWACP, among other things. The work was to be completed by December 2023 and a final report by March 2024. A planner and a responder with the lead agencies for oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response in Oregon and Washington, respectively, co-chaired with Ott.

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ALERT and allies petition OSHA to require reporting of common cold and flu symptoms for oil spill workers

February 13, 2023. ALERT and allies petition OSHA to require recording and recordkeeping of cold and flu symptoms of workers during oil spill emergency response under the National Contingency Plan.

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OSHA issues standard interpretation for the cold and flu exemption

November 15, 2023. In response to ALERT’s request, OSHA issued a standard interpretation with guidelines for employers to determine if common cold and flu-like symptoms may be work-related chemical illnesses: “it is not sufficient for the employer to simply assume that the exception applies to a given situation… without further investigation and analysis. As a general matter… the employer should apply the same analysis used to evaluate the recordability of other employee injuries and illnesses." Though an improvement, the guideline is overbroad as the cold and flu exemption still can be used by employers to dodge reporting one of the most common symptoms of chemical exposure, i.e., those of the common cold and flu.

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Ott amicus letter granted by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

January 12, 2024. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals accepted an amicus letter written by ALERT’s director Dr. Riki Ott in support of the plaintiff-appellants in BP Deepwater Horizon BELO cases. The amicus letter advocates reversal of the district court’s order excluding the expert testimony and calls for a deeper understanding of the crucial science behind dispersant exposure; science that would protect first responders and the exposed public in future oil spills.

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Federal OSHA issues a proposed rule for emergency response to create a legal duty for worker health monitoring and surveillance

February 5, 2024. Federal OSHA issued a proposed rule to protect emergency responders after a 25-year national consensus process with stakeholders. The proposed rule is the first comprehensive, prescriptive federal emergency response standard. It includes symptom-based health monitoring and triggers for protective action, pre- and post- incident medical evaluations, and health monitoring during incidents available to every on-site emergency worker. Near perfect—except the proposed rule does not apply to HAZWOPER emergency responders.

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Health & Safety Task Force recommends health monitoring units––

and law changes to create a legal duty for employers

February 14, 2024. The final report of the Health & Safety Task Force, co-chaired by ALERT director Dr. Ott, recommended development of a worker health monitoring and surveillance unit to conduct and track individual worker health from pre- through post-deployment and to track population trends with medical surveillance for early intervention in real-time during illness outbreaks. It recommended using symptom-based monitoring and action triggers like in the National Response Team guidelines for worker risk assessment and health monitoring. Symptoms provide more reliable indicators of harm than the outdated numerical standards, especially when chemical mixtures and health hazards with no safe level of exposure are present. The task force also recommended how to fit the unit into the NWACP.

Further, the task force recommended development of a public health assessment unit, following the RRT 9 example in California but including real-time health monitoring units for the exposed public, in addition to monitoring air, water, soil, and seafood as is already done. Finally, the task force recommended changes to the OSHA federal and Washington state Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) standards to create a legal duty for employers engaged in emergency response.

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Federal OSHA Hazard Communication Standards revised to include symptom-based exposure assessment

May 20, 2024. The final rule for the federal Hazard Communication Standard clarifies symptoms of exposure to a substance or mixture for which there is no safe level of exposure. Symptoms of exposure are required to be communicated in safety data sheets to downstream users, giving workers a right to know and understand, i.e., recognize, symptoms as warning signs of exposure. Revisions were made to conform with revisions of the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System for Chemical Classification and Labeling of which the United States is a member.

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ALERT advocates symptom-based health monitoring and citizens’ councils to strengthen national disaster preparedness

Fall 2024. ALERT launches multi-state campaign to include symptom-based human health monitoring and citizens’ councils in the nationwide restructuring of coastal Area and Regional Contingency Plans, slated to be completed by October 2026.