Several OSHA experts say the agency's planned data request exploring ways to update the agency's permissible exposure limits (PELs) -- which are largely based on 1960s science and widely viewed as antiquated in both industry and labor quarters -- is just a tentative step in tackling a highly complex issue with no clear path to overcoming the restrictions imposed by a key 1991 court decision that dashed OSHA's last wholesale effort to revise the levels.
December 28, 2025