OSHA’s proposed safety standard for emergency responders includes a call for information on claims that firefighters face health risks from toxic, long-lasting chemicals known as PFAS that are used as water- and oil-proofing agents in their protective gear -- the latest step in a long-running debate on that question.
November 15, 2026
EPA Administrator Michael Regan has signed a proposed Risk Management Program (RMP) rule that would reinstate controversial provisions contained in an Obama-era regulation, but removed by the Trump administration, as well require new actions aimed at “empowering workers” in facility safety considerations.
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The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is criticizing the Defense Department’s (DOD) approach for developing a new occupational exposure limit (OEL) for the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), including DOD’s decision to exclude a controversial study EPA has used to set TCE risk values to protect against fetal heart malformations.
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A House Energy and Commerce Committee panel has advanced on a primarily partisan basis a bill to ban all uses of asbestos and a package of 13 bills to deal with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), although the asbestos legislation could ultimately drive chlorine producers to use PFAS as a replacement to asbestos.
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Labor and other advocates are strongly criticizing EPA’s risk evaluations for a common solvent and a largely phased-out flame retardant for what they say is a gross understatement of the risks that workers face from exposure to the chemicals, in part because the agency assumes workers will use protective equipment.
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Following criticism that EPA was unnecessarily rushing to complete the first 10 risk evaluations required by the revised toxics law by the end of the year, the agency’s toxics chief says officials will use the additional six months the law allows to complete the studies but they are still aiming to complete all peer reviews by the December 2019 deadline.
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Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' currently unknown position on when courts should defer to EPA and other federal agencies' interpretations of their regulations will largely determine whether and to what degree the current standard remains, according to legal experts.
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Supreme Court justices at March 27 oral argument appeared unlikely to completely overturn a key precedent granting deference to OSHA and other federal agencies' interpretations of their regulations, though several of the justices appeared open to the Trump administration's call to narrow the deference.
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State and local emergency response officials are renewing their call for EPA to promulgate an accident prevention rule to address chemical spills under the Clean Water Act (CWA), criticizing the agency's decision to drop plans for such a rule as a dereliction of duty and arguing recently released EPA data does nothing to support the agency's decision.
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