On Jan. 13, a 6-3 majority of the United States Supreme Court blocked OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), which required employers with 100 or more employees to develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. Under the ETS, employees who chose to remain unvaccinated were required to undergo regular testing for COVID-19 and wear a face covering at work. The ETS also required employers to provide paid time off for workers to get vaccinated and paid leave for workers suffering from side effects of the vaccines, and to maintain records of each test result. In its majority opinion, the Court held that requiring vaccination is an exercise of power that would need to be explicitly granted by Congress and that OSHA had overstepped its authority, which is limited to the workplace. “Although COVID-19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most,” the majority write. “COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather.… Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life—simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock—would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization.” The majority acknowledge OSHA’s authority “to regulate occupation-specific risks related to COVID-19 … [w]here the virus poses a special danger because of the particular features of an employee’s job or workplace.” Such risks would be present for researchers who handle the COVID-19 virus or in workplaces that are particularly crowded, according to the majority. But the opinion states that “OSHA’s indiscriminate approach fails to account for this crucial distinction—between occupational risk and risk more generally—and accordingly the mandate takes on the character of a general public health measure.” A concurring opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, holds that even if the Occupational Safety and Health Act had granted OSHA the power to mandate vaccination, doing so would have represented “an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.” In their dissent, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elana Kagan object to the majority’s characterization of the ETS as a “vaccine mandate” because the standard allows employers to institute a policy of masking and testing instead of vaccination. The dissenting opinion challenges the majority’s finding that the ETS represents an overreach of OSHA’s authority. “OSHA’s rule perfectly fits the language of the applicable statutory provision,” the minority write, which “not just enables, but commands … OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard whenever it determines” that workers face grave danger in workplaces. In a statement, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh described the court’s decision as “a major setback to the health and safety of workers across the country.” According to Walsh, “OSHA stands by the Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard as the best way to protect the nation’s workforce from a deadly virus that is infecting more than 750,000 Americans each day and has taken the lives of nearly a million Americans.” The Court’s majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions are available as a PDF download.

NIOSH announced on its website that it has honored a request by ALG Health to voluntarily rescind all respirator approvals issued to the company. As of Jan. 6, 2022, respirators marked with a NIOSH approval label indicating any of the following 13 rescinded approval numbers are no longer NIOSH-approved: TC-84A-9259, TC-84A -9262, TC-84A-9270, TC-84A-9271, TC-84A-9273, TC-84A-9274, TC-84A-9275, TC-84A-9280, TC-84A-9281, TC-84A-9282, TC- 84A-9288, TC-84A-9290, and TC-84A-9292. Due to the voluntary rescission of these approvals, respirators bearing any of the rescinded NIOSH approval numbers may no longer be manufactured, assembled, sold, or distributed. In its announcement, NIOSH urges interested individuals to contact ALG Health for additional details related to the company’s decision to voluntarily rescind the approvals. NIOSH directs users to its Certified Equipment List to confirm testing and certification approval numbers, which are printed on NIOSH-approved respirators.

Simple Solutions for Dusty Environments at Metal/Nonmetal Mines, a booklet published by NIOSH in December, is intended to help health and safety professionals control occupational exposures to dust at surface mines and facilities. According to NIOSH, the solutions presented in the booklet can help reduce dust exposures as well as risks for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and traumatic injuries. The booklet lists common contributors to dust exposure and risk factors for MSDs and traumatic injuries, then describes common work tasks and practices at mining operations. For each task or practice, NIOSH describes the associated risk factors, potential problems and accompanying solutions, and suggestions for additional improvements. A separate section of the booklet focused on additional resources provides links to other NIOSH publications covering mine health and safety. For more information or to download the booklet as a free PDF, visit NIOSH’s website.