
OSHA's Regulatory Agenda Coming Next Week
Well, it’s looking like the OSHA Regulatory Agenda (Fall) will be published early next week – most likely on Monday 12/20 (my guess). I don’t know why there was a delay in getting it out but I am sure that all of us in the field will be very interested in reading it. Sure do hope that at least some progress was made on the “real” / important items at least. Personally, I am most anxious to see if they have made any progress whatsoever on Diacetyl rulemaking. We shall see. Ir


OSHA – National Emphasis Programs (NEP) on Diacetyl – Are They or Aren’t They?
I’m not quite sure why the Agency has overlooked this, so I sent them an email to let them know of the oversight regarding the Diacetyl NEP. As we all know, OSHA released its first NEP (Diacetyl in Microwave Popcorn) in 2007 and that program ran its course so to speak. Then in 2009, the Agency issued an expanded NEP (Food Flavorings Containing Diacetyl) and they have stated that they are looking at expading the program yet again to basically include “all” (I use that term lo

Cal-OSHA Issues Diacetyl (DAPORS) Rule – Good or Bad Thing?
To be honest, I don’t know yet as I have only read the press release at this point. HOWEVER, I can definitely see where this might be going. Well, looks like Cal/OSHA has published a new rule on Diacetyl which may explain why Fed OSHA recently issued their own SHIB as what seems to be a last minute effort. I don’t know if there is a PEL in there or not. I can only hope that there is one and that it’s not a cop-out level of 0 (zero) ppm. I’ll read the rule later and see if an


Important Observations About OSHA’s New SHIB for Food Flavorings Containing Diacetyl (DAPORS)
After taking a closer look at the SHIB, a few issues come to mind and are noted below. Hopefully, with the Diacetyl rulemaking effort, all stakeholders will soon be able to provide substantive comments help facilitate meaningful progress. Workers’ protection is at stake… it’s not like that’s important or anything. (yes, that is a bit of scarcasm at the end there). There is a distinct change in language in this new SHIB which seems to be going unnoticed by stakeholders in the