Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is urging EPA to tighten its proposed rule overhauling the agency's industrial facility accident prevention program by requiring that certain facilities use inherently safer technologies (IST) such as alternative chemicals or process changes, arguing that the rule as drafted fails to adequately improve safety.
September 17, 2026
Industry attorneys expect that OSHA will challenge the recent appellate ruling that vacated its 2015 policy that subjected more fertilizer retailers to its process safety management (PSM) rule, noting that the decision limits OSHA's ability to interpret its standards, and will bolster employer challenges to enforcement actions before the agency's review commission and in courts.
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Industry officials have updated a 1975 study that forms the basis of OSHA and EPA risk values to protect workers and others from cancer as a result of inhaling hexavalent chromium (Cr6), finding that the new data shows significantly lower risks than the earlier version.
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EPA has extended by one month -- from Sept. 26 to Oct. 26 -- the comment deadline on its proposed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulation to align its rules on significant new uses of chemicals with OSHA standards, after industry stakeholders asked for more time to provide their input.
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Striking a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to bolster facility safety, a federal appeals court has vacated OSHA's controversial 2015 policy narrowing the exemption from its process safety management (PSM) standard for retailers, finding the agency unlawfully issued the memo expanding the reach of its facility worker protection rule without public input.
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The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel preparing advice on how OSHA should bolster recordkeeping and reporting requirements for employee illnesses and injuries is wrestling with what factors to include in any broader program, including expanded considerations of the cost of injuries and illnesses, worker demographics and work conditions, such as harmful exposures.
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EPA's recent assessment of the human health risks of ammonia, a substance used to produce fertilizer, detergent and other products, adopts a risk value that is far more stringent than limits that OSHA and NIOSH have published to protect workers and which industry urged EPA to adopt though it is slightly weaker than EPA's 1991 standard.
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With briefing now completed, a federal court in Georgia is slated to decide a potentially landmark case that could broadly limit OSHA's facility inspection authority and sectoral emphasis programs, with the company calling OSHA's targeting of industry sectors a dragnet similar to racial profiling while the agency says existing precedent allows it to prioritize inspections.
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In one of three rare rules that EPA is drafting under its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 6 authorities, the agency is weighing whether to ban the use of the controversial solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) when used as a degreaser to clean various parts and components, or whether additional restrictions on such operations are sufficient to protect workers.
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A coalition of fuel, manufacturing and other industry sectors is arguing that OSHA is using a worker injury reporting rule to claim “virtually unlimited authority” to craft a new enforceable process for the rule, urging a federal district court to find that the agency failed to justify its assertion of power and seeking to block enforcement of the rule.
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An attorney who has pushed for stronger whistleblower protection laws is backing OSHA's recently-issued guidance for agency reviews of settlements between whistleblowers and employers, saying the updated criteria will help guard against contractual restrictions that could otherwise prevent future reporting of workplace violations.
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A small business advocacy group is seeking to block OSHA from enforcing its 2013 memo interpreting federal law as allowing union representatives to accompany OSHA inspectors onto non-unionized work sites, arguing the memo violates the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act and was issued without following rulemaking procedures.
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State regulators are urging OSHA to again delay enforcement of its controversial 2015 policy memo expanding its process safety management (PSM) facility safety rule to cover fertilizer retailers, saying the agency should wait until it seeks input on crafting guidance for how facilities should implement and comply with the rule.
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Chemical and dry cleaning industry representatives are reiterating concerns with EPA's risk assessment underpinning the agency's upcoming proposed rule aimed at protecting workers and others from risks posed by the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) when used as a spotting agent in dry cleaning and in consumer aerosol spray degreasers, highlighting alleged flaws in the review.
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Representatives from the halogenated solvents and dry cleaning industries are urging the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) to question EPA's failure to complete a small business impacts review for its pending proposal to limit occupational safety and other risks of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE).
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is joining her fellow California senator asking EPA to include asbestos as one of the first 10 high-risk chemicals the agency prioritizes for review and possible regulation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), saying that doing so would “reaffirm confidence” in EPA's power to restrict the known carcinogen in workplaces and elsewhere.
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OSHA is poised to seek data from industry groups and other stakeholders for a possible overhaul of its decades-old rules aimed at preventing falls in shipyards, a class of accidents that result in several fatalities and injuries each year, according to agency data.
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OSHA and Canada's health regulators are slated to take a series of steps over the next few months as part of their long-standing effort to harmonize their hazard and communication systems to protect workers from chemicals in the workplace under the international chemical labeling regime.
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Groups representing major industrial sectors and environmentalists are querying how EPA plans to define key terms for its pending rule under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to prioritize chemicals for risk assessment, including “susceptible subpopulations,” such as workers, and how to satisfy a statutory mandate for scientific integrity.
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Chemical solvent producers are pushing back against pending EPA rules restricting certain chemical uses to protect against workplace and consumer exposures, arguing in White House meetings that EPA's rules encroach on OSHA's jurisdiction, and petitioning the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to bolster consumer protections before EPA does.
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