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PalletCentral • March-April 2021 37 impacts indoor accumulations of wood dust that exceed specifications in the NFPA 652 consensus standard. OSHA is also likely to resume work on its combustible dust rule, which started during the Obama era but stalled under Trump, as well as on an expanded workplace violence rule. OSHA also increased penalties in January 2021, to a new high of $136,532 for willful and repeated violations. e Site-Specific Targeting inspection program launched in 2018, using the electronically submitted data for high-hazard general industry worksites, will likely continue under President Biden, and the pallet and warehousing NAICS codes are included in that program. COVID-19 COVID-19 will continue to be the top occupational health issue in 2021 across all industry sectors. During 2020, employers were challenged in addressing COVID-19 in the workplace due to constantly fluctuating OSHA policy at the federal level, some of which conflicted with CDC/NIOSH guidance or workplace safety requirements in state emergency orders (some of which were enforced by state health departments). OSHA claimed to be doing rigorous enforcement – as a practical matter their tools were limited to enforcing respiratory protection and other PPE rules – and issuing citations under the General Duty Clause (Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act) in especially horrendous cases, such as in the protein industry where outbreaks were causing scores of deaths among workers with few controls in place. By early 2021, frustrated with the federal response, four states (VA, MI, OR and CA) adopted emergency temporary standards (ETS) governing COVID controls and reporting, via their state-plan OSHA agencies. Virginia's rule became permanent (with modifications) on January 27, 2021, and most provisions take full effect by the end of March 2021. e other three states are currently working on permanent standards. Other states, such as New Jersey and New York, adopted workplace safety requirements to address COVID-19 and made them enforceable through their health departments. In February 2021, Amazon sued New York arguing that federal OSHA had exclusive jurisdiction, so this is an area to watch. With the new administration in place, however, President Biden's first order of business was issuance of an Executive Order directing OSHA to adopt new policies to address COVID-19, accomplished on January 29, 2021, and to determine by March 15, 2021, whether to issue an ETS. It is expected that this will occur on a fast track, likely modeled after elements of the draft infectious disease prevention rule that was developed under the Obama OSHA but was left languishing for the past four years, as well as the Virginia OSHA final rule. e Executive Order on COVID also directs the U.S. Department of Labor to "clarify that workers have federally guaranteed right to refuse employment that will jeopardize their health and will qualify for unemployment insurance if they do." OSHA Recordkeeping, Drug Testing & Incentive Programs During the Obama Administration, a number of key OSHA rulemaking initiatives were completed but then reopened under President Trump in an effort to remove some of the more onerous provisions. Most of these changes were legally challenged by labor groups opposed to what was Mayor Walsh has a long history as a union laborer (and the son of one) who rose to the top of the Boston Building Trades union before becoming Mayor. At his confirmation hearing, he spoke movingly of his father's occupational lung damage ... and it is likely that occupational health will be a strong focus for him. Coppersmith Photography

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