California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed into law a pair of bills aimed at expanding worker safety at refineries and hospitals, as well as legislation requiring workplace first-aid kits to contain the opioid overdose medication naloxone hydrochloride.
November 15, 2026
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill that sought to ensure workers compensation benefits for heat-related injuries in the agriculture sector, objecting to the prospect of linking California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) and the state’s workers compensation agency, while citing several existing programs that he says already protect employees from heat.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is weighing whether to enact a bill unanimously backed by state legislators that would expand the state’s stringent petroleum refinery worker-safety standards to biorefineries and other facilities, in response to labor union concerns about a recent series of fires at renewable fuel production plants that caused serious injuries.
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Industry groups representing fabricated stone manufacturing companies are pressing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials to ease certain sections of their proposed permanent rules to protect workers from exposure to crystalline silica, including by relaxing requirements for respirators and providing more incentives for in-shop improvements.
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California’s toxics department is posing new questions for stakeholder feedback as part of its proposal to require consideration of nail polish and related products containing triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) as a “priority product” under the state’s green chemistry program, an action the department is taking in part due to potential risks to salon workers.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has signed into law additional requirements for employers to protect retail employees from workplace violence incidents, about two months after similar new legislatively required measures took effect in California.
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Labor unions and worker-protection groups are at odds with employer representatives over California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) latest revised draft permanent workplace violence-prevention rules, even as companies continue to scramble to comply with interim statutorily required measures that took effect July 1.
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California lawmakers have passed bills to tighten existing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) standards, including requiring the installation of metal detectors in hospitals, adding the opioid overdose medication naloxone hydrochloride to workplace first-aid kits, and compensating outdoor workers who suffer heat-related injuries because employers violated safety rules.
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California lawmakers have killed a bill that would have prohibited, beginning July 1, 2026, the sale and use of firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) containing intentionally added PFAS, and would have required state regulators to align worker-safety rules with a future national standard for PFAS-free firefighting gear.
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California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has approved a set of highly contentious regulatory amendments to its fall-protection standard for residential construction workers in order to meet federal OSHA’s requirements for such rules, despite reluctance from the panelists and employers’ claims that current state practices are more protective.
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