Health and safety advocates say California's proposal to mandate that petroleum refineries use strict inherently safer technology (IST) to improve facility safety in order to protect workers and prevent accidents supports their request for OSHA and EPA to mandate IST in future facility safety rules.
September 17, 2026
An attorney who advises employers on OSHA policies says the pending industry challenge to the agency's new injury and illness reporting regulation is sufficient “to the kill rule,” though the attorney is still urging companies to comply with the rule's controversial provisions aimed at deterring retaliation against employees who report injuries.
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Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the environment committee, is urging EPA to use new authority in the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to start the process of banning asbestos, saying that some lawmakers who backed TSCA reform did so with the expectation it would help EPA issue such a prohibition.
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An industry association is asserting that OSHA, in a recently-issued letter of interpretation, has expanded its interpretation of a reportable injury, citing the agency's finding that an employee's injury must be reported -- even though the treatment was self-prescribed, and although eventually backed by a doctor, not medically-required.
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State regulators are urging OSHA to drop language in its interim final rule increasing civil penalties that they say appears to require that states with OSHA-approved enforcement plans also raise their penalties for health and safety violations, arguing that such a requirement would exceed OSHA authority.
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The Obama administration's controversial new rules and related guidance to assist federal agencies in weighing health and safety and other labor law violations in procurement decisions backs labor advocates' calls to expand the list violations that agencies must consider in their decisions even as officials defended against industry claims that the measure is unnecessary and exceeds federal authority.
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The Labor Department (DOL) is urging a federal court to reject a magistrate judge's landmark recommendation to limit an OSHA inspection of a poultry processing facility to the circumstances of an employee's injury, in a case that worker advocates say could severely limit the agency's enforcement authority.
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OSHA is urging a federal court to reject an industry lawsuit seeking to block anti-retaliation provisions of the agency's new injury and illness record-keeping and reporting rule, claiming broad statutory authority and discretion to ensure accurate reporting of worker injuries, and that the industry lawsuit is unlikely to succeed.
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Local officials from a California county where numerous industrial facility accidents have occurred in recent years are urging OSHA to strengthen its facility worker safety program by covering additional substances and hazards, and adding requirements for facilities to conduct new analyses and emergency drills.
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Chemical and petroleum industry groups are urging OSHA to halt or minimize potential revisions to its process safety management (PSM) rule, raising new arguments that the agency lacks statutory authority for some possible changes, while urging officials to streamline any new requirements with upcoming EPA rules.
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An industry attorney expects that OSHA will soon begin a national or at least regional emphasis program targeting enforcement against industries that the agency deems pose significant hazards to temporary workers, calling such a program an expected progression of the agency's recent focus on protecting temporary workers on job sites.
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The Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), a group that advocates for strict health and safety protections, is renewing long-standing calls for OSHA to issue a national standard to protect workers from heat-related injuries and death, an effort that will likely take shape in the next administration.
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The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) in a new report is touting the benefits of preventive inspections at petroleum refineries to prevent accidents and worker injuries, a finding that bolsters pending efforts by EPA and OSHA to strengthen their facility safety rules with new requirements for independent audits.
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OSHA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review a draft final rule instituting new procedures for investigating complaints of retaliation against whistleblowers in the health care sector, a responsibility the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) delegated to the agency.
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Industry and health advocates are at odds over what exposure methods EPA should use under the new federal toxics law to assess exposures to industrial chemicals, with industry urging the agency to use the “sentinel” approach that OSHA uses while environmentalists say they favor an “aggregate” approach that better reflects real-world risks.
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A magistrate judge is recommending that a federal court limit OSHA's authority to inspect a poultry facility to circumstances surrounding a specific injury, potentially undercutting stepped up efforts by the agency and advocates to increase oversight over the sector.
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OSHA has cited a New Jersey chemical facility for serious violations of its current Process Safety Management (PSM) regulations, including record-keeping and auditing violations, underscoring the agency's ongoing effort to strengthen its facility worker safety program under President Obama's executive order on improving industrial plant safety.
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EPA has sent for White House review a proposed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section 6 rule to ban or restrict the sales or manufacture of trichloroethylene (TCE) to better protect workers and others, the first attempt by the agency to use the section to restrict a chemical since its failed effort to ban asbestos in 1991.
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As EPA prepares to submit its final facility accident prevention rule for White House review, the agency is facing stepped-up calls from Republican attorneys general and some industry officials to withdraw the pending measure and overhaul it to ensure it will not exacerbate risks of terrorist attacks on industrial facilities.
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A federal panel advising OSHA on how potential changes to the agency's facility worker protection rule might affect small businesses is opposing any agency mandate that facilities use strict safety measures, known as inherently safer technologies (IST), usually alternative chemicals or processes, and calling for additional analyses prior to any proposal.
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