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The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has begun an unusual review into the practices of a state occupational safety and health agency.

The Las Vegas Sun reported that a task force comprised of federal OSHA officials and two officials from other state workplace safety agencies have been at the offices of Nevada OSHA to review how the state investigates workplace accidents.

Nevada OSHA came into the spotlight last year after 12 construction worker deaths on the Strip in Las Vegas during an 18 month period. The accidents received widespread attention due to a Pulitzer Prize winning series of articles in the Sun.

Nevada, along with about half of the states, has its own agency to enforce laws governing workplace safety. In the remaining states, the federal OSHA governs workplace safety. The federal version of OSHA is also charged with reviewing the state plans to make sure they’re at least as effective as the federal approach, but it is unusual for the feds to undertake a review like the one now underway in Nevada.

The task force is expected to report on its findings in a month.

OSHA has resumed its practice of answering very specific questions about how its regulations should be interpreted.

The answers, known as letters of interpretation, appear on the agency’s web site and most of the posted answers deal with construction safety issues. Because they are narrow questions posed by individual employers, they may not have a broader application, but do give insight into the agency’s thinking.

For example, a letter from Richard E. Fairfax, director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, tells a Milwaukee employer that it must provide static dissipative safety toe footwear at no cost to employees working with flammable liquids and products because the footwear provides additional protection and is designed for special use on the job.