California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has narrowly rejected setting up a process to amend its workforce-safety rules for farming equipment to allow automated tractors and other machines to operate independently in the field, with several panel members arguing that more research data is needed before the agency begins investigating a rule.
November 15, 2026
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is issuing 18 citations to a medical device sterilization company for allegedly failing to protect its employees from overexposure to the toxic solvent ethylene oxide (EtO), amid a growing battle over EPA-crafted risk levels for the carcinogen that industry has argued are unreasonably strict.
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Employer and trade groups are urging California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to extend the comment period on its proposed overhaul of rules for lead exposure in the construction sector and general industry, charging that the new blood lead-level limits and action levels are much too stringent, and that many of the rules are too complicated for regulated entities to understand.
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California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is scheduled to hear debate over whether to amend its workforce safety rules for farming equipment to allow automated tractors and other machines to operate independently in the field, amid pushback from labor and worker-safety groups that say the move would heighten injury and death risks.
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California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) appeals board has issued what the agency is calling a “precedential” decision affirming that provisions of water at outdoor worksites must be “as close as practicable” to the areas where employees are working to encourage frequent consumption, bolstering the state’s heat-danger protections.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) chief Jeff Killip acknowledged that the agency continues to struggle to carry out enforcement amid a 30 percent staff vacancy rate during his recent confirmation hearing, while highlighting his agency’s work on indoor heat worker-safety rules and outreach to both vulnerable employees and businesses to improve performance.
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Members of the California legislature have introduced a bill that would reimburse employers’ costs for complying with the state OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) COVID-19 worker-safety standard in 2023 and 2024 through a new tax credit, with support from agriculture groups that have attacked the standard as unnecessary, overly burdensome and costly.
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Newly introduced California legislation would require the state’s OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to adopt standards requiring employers in “all industries” besides healthcare to draft workplace violence prevention plans as part of existing injury and illness prevention programs, in an effort to accelerate such requirements.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) has missed its target to unveil the final version of a long-pending update to requirements for first-aid kits for general industry and construction companies, triggering a new comment process and drawing criticism from at least one member of the agency’s standards board, along with employer and worker-safety representatives.
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Democratic attorneys general (AGs) in seven states are petitioning OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for occupational heat exposure to take effect on May 1, arguing that workplace heat exacerbated by climate change poses a “grave danger” to tens of millions of employees around the country.
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