Progress on a new safer official US workplace exposure limit for cancer-causing silica dust has been frustrated by the business lobby for over a decade. But a bid by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to finally introduce stricter controls on silica has hit a second brick wall – a review process run by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that has stalled the ready-to-go standard since 14 February 2011. The National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, which advises the Labor Department, issued a statement in December 2011 saying it was ‘deeply distressed’ that the proposed new regulations had been under review for so long. ‘The current standard is many decades old and is insufficient to protect workers from this serious occupational health hazard,’ the advisory committee noted. ‘The silica rule delay is extraordinary and without explanation, and there is no indication as to when the review will be concluded.’

Union of Concerned Scientists news release. NPR Morning Edition. Huffington Post. AFL-CIO Now blog. Risks 541.