John Howard will stay on as NIOSH director, becoming the longest serving chief of the occupational research institute that serves as sister agency to OSHA, federal health officials said Tuesday.
September 17, 2026
OSHA strongly signaled its continued intent to stem ergonomics problems at poultry plants using every angle possible -- inspections, fines and warnings to the industry -- most recently by issuing citations against a Delaware chicken supplier and then following up months later with a series of “hazard alert letters” calling for voluntary measures.
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House Republicans will lose a persistent critic of Obama administration labor policies who has tried to impede an increasingly active OSHA agenda when Rep. John Kline (MN) steps down from Congress after 2016.
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A GOP-led House plan to zero out funding for OSHA's Susan Harwood training grants next year and launch a new round of evaluations to see if existing recipients should still get money has the Labor Department ginning up opposition to the effort, which sources say grows out of Republicans viewing the program as union- and activist-driven.
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An industry attorney is pushing back against the Environmental Protection Agency's assertion in a recently released vapor intrusion guidance that it has "broad authority" to protect workers from indoor air contamination, arguing the agency's position lacks legal backing and tries to compensate for weak OSHA exposure limits.
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Nurses' representatives are pressing hard for health care employers to use an OSHA-developed model to reduce the potential for workplace violence, including a set of engineering controls, as the agency comes under increasing pressure from labor groups to take an enforcement approach to cutting violence risks.
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Corporate franchise advocates are seeking a wide swath of documents and information from OSHA regarding its internal decision-making and any enforcement direction imposed by the national office on field staff to carry out the current OSHA policy on determining the joint employer status of businesses.
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NIOSH continues to press for “prevention through design” solutions to reduce safety and health risks through early preventive measures, urging employers to weave the concept into their business models and producing a new guide to help companies understand how to put such an initiative in place.
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OSHA chief David Michaels says a new Obama administration policy to screen employers for alleged past OSH Act and other labor law violations and use that as a factor in awarding federal contracts has been written to proactively help employers get into OSHA compliance, not simply freeze them out of federal business, a view contrary to industry's worries that the policy will be used as a heavy-handed enforcement tool.
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Labor Department lawyers have drafted a policy for OSHA to determine whether a joint employer relationship exists between franchisors and franchisees that includes several key tests, including an analysis of “economic realities,” according to an internal document obtained by Inside OSHA Online.
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A judge in throwing out OSHA's citations against a Texas shipbreaking operation criticized the agency in unusually strong language as he reversed the penalties, finding agency officials had acted “recklessly” by misrepresenting their intent to abide by an agreed-upon 60-day abatement period stemming from an earlier round of inspections and lengthy litigation.
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OSHA's newly devised process for resolving whistleblower disputes in the early stages using a form of agency arbitration has cautious support of industry experts who say it carries the potential to greatly cut litigation costs but should be pursued sparingly and only in cases that will not lead to further dispute.
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OSHA has landed a significant agreement with an Ohio nursing care facility that stipulates new policies and procedures for safe lifting and repositioning of residents -- a step forward in the agency's efforts to tackle the growing issue of ergonomics in health care through enforcement and negotiation with employers instead of rulemaking.
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OSHA is pushing ahead on the early stages of a potential rulemaking that would put in place tighter safety and health regulations for emergency response and preparedness activities, and is poised to consult in Washington with a national advisory panel Sept. 9 on the issue. By then draft regulatory language will be available, OSHA said Monday.
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California industries are urging federal officials to assess the costs and benefits of a guidance for protecting against cardiac birth defects from exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE), arguing the Environmental Protection Agency policy is based on uncertain science and will cost companies millions of dollars.
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OSHA is making a case to administration budget officials that several of the agency's ongoing regulatory initiatives will result in beneficial economic and fiscal outcomes as sought under an executive order mandating periodic lookbacks on federal regulations across the government -- even though some of the efforts remain controversial.
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OSHA signaled a willingness to take tough enforcement action and widely publicize alleged willful infractions of the agency's asbestos standards, hitting two Illinois construction companies and a manager with nearly $2 million in proposed fines, alleging numerous violations of the longstanding regulations.
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Cal/OSHA hit ExxonMobil with more than $566,000 in proposed fines stemming from the February blast at the company's Torrance, CA, facility that injured four workers, an incident that sparked renewed national attention to refinery safety and that led the state to form a task force keyed to the complex issue.
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Farmworker advocates are backing aspects of a new proposed rule by the Environmental Protection Agency that would strengthen protections for applicators of restricted use pesticides by setting a first-time minimum age for certified applicators, as well as first-time training requirements for those who work directly under the supervision of certified applicators.
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Several groups of federal contractors banded together early this month to tell the White House that President Obama should refrain in the “foreseeable future” from issuing executive orders that could negatively impact contractors, just as the administration rolls out a new policy requiring agencies to screen employers for OSHA and other labor violations.
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