Ensuring employee safety during the surge of consumer activity around the holidays remains a key enforcement concern for OSHA despite the controversial aspects of the federal agency exercising enforcement discretion that critics say goes beyond its statutory powers in requiring employers to fix known hazards, sources say.
September 17, 2026
OSHA released its long-awaited proposed rule tackling crystalline silica exposures on Friday (Aug. 23), rolling out a comprehensive regulation that if eventually adopted would cut the permissible exposure limit to 50 micrograms of respirable crystalline silica per cubic meter and take broad measures to limit worker exposures across industries.
The proposed rule is split between two separate standards -- one for general industry and maritime, and the other for construction.
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OSHA's position asserting that the independent agency charged with reviewing OSH Act citations has authority to order so-called “enterprise-wide” abatement of hazards keyed to inspections at individual locations of a multi-site employer faces new legal hurdles after an administrative law judge (ALJ) rejected the agency's interpretation.
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Editor's note: The following is a letter to the editor from industry attorney Lawrence Halprin of Keller and Heckman regarding OSHA's proposed silica rule. Inside OSHA Online invites reader comments on this subject, which may be sent to ccole@iwpnews.com.
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OSHA is forcefully pushing back against Republican calls on Capitol Hill for a second small business review of the agency's planned crystalline silica rule, with a top agency official telling Inside OSHA Online the agency did a “very thorough panel” in the early 2000s and afterward fully addressed small business concerns in the proposed rule unveiled this summer.
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A key case testing the legal theories involved in OSHA's use of the general duty clause to press citations in situations where the agency has not issued a specific standard will be reviewed soon by the full Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), with one of the two sitting commissioners withdrawing her recusal from the case after divesting stock in Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the company challenging OSHA's stance.
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The American Medical Medical Association (AMA) on Tuesday (Nov. 19) officially endorsed OSHA's recently released proposal to toughen regulations on workplace exposure to crystalline silica, saying the change would lead to a dramatic decline in worker illness and calling the existing permissible exposure limit (PEL) insufficient.
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NIOSH's long-awaited proposal to overhaul its system for classifying potential workplace carcinogens shifts to a tiered model used by several other agencies that deal with toxic substances, and the new NIOSH policy categorizes the substances based on definitions used in the Globally Harmonized System (GHS).
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Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) is urging the Environmental Protection Agency not to grant calls by Democrats and advocates to add the fertilizer ammonium nitrate to the list of substances regulated under its facility safety rules, saying existing OSHA rules adequately address risks from the substance's release.
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The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed updated protection standards for agricultural workers exposed to pesticide chemicals, formally submitting the long-delayed rule to the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) for review following various lobbying efforts from farmworker groups over the summer and past threats of litigation.
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Worker health experts view legislative efforts to reform a decades-old federal toxics law the Environmental Protection Agency uses to screen substances as one potential way to tackle the problem of outdated OSHA permissible exposure limits (PELs), by including protections for workers as a subset of so-called “vulnerable” populations who are highly exposed or sensitive to risky chemicals.
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Chemical safety experts are lauding the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) for developing new consensus standards that clamp down on the controversial practice of “purging” gas pipelines with flammable gases, which was blamed for a deadly Connecticut blast nearly four years ago.
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House Republicans this week will take a closer look at a bipartisan plan to reform the decades-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) -- which could have eventual ramifications for OSHA's chemical safety enforcement -- though informed sources say the measure faces an uphill climb in the Senate because it fails to meet several Democratic demands on safety standards.
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Workplace safety and health whistleblower advocates are calling for increased protections against employer retaliation at the state level to address what they say are considerable flaws in federal OSHA protections, in part the 30-day complaint filing period which they argue is too narrow.
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A national trade group representing silica sand producers is pushing for a comprehensive new crystalline silica rule under which OSHA would mandate a far-reaching set of exposure monitoring and medical surveillance requirements to prevent worker silicosis but not lower the permissible exposure limit (PEL) below 100 micrograms per cubic meter, as OSHA would under its newly proposed standards to confront the hazard.
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OSHA plans to require quarterly electronic reporting of injuries and illnesses at companies with 250 or more workers under a proposed rule that amounts to a revolutionary change in the way OSHA gathers data, though officials say the shift does not alter employers' basic recordkeeping duties.
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OSHA plans to unveil as soon as Thursday (Nov. 7) a proposed rule aimed at modernizing injury and illness recordkeeping requirements under the OSH Act, a source familiar with OSHA's plans regarding the rulemaking tells Inside OSHA Online.
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New York City leaders are weighing a bill to require worker training for some types of development projects that receive city financial assistance -- a proposal that mirrors efforts in several states and municipalities to tie public-sector support to occupational safety and health mandates.
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Safety and health programs at the state level are gradually taking steps to disseminate crucial data and develop new regulatory schemes that will help reduce workplace hazards posed by toxic drugs used in heath care settings, especially chemotherapy agents, NIOSH chief John Howard tells Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interview.
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Richard Griffin, President Obama's nominee for general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), cleared the Senate in a largely party-line vote Oct. 29, even as Republicans blasted the nomination as reflecting a long-term push by the administration to instill a pro-labor bias on the mediation board.
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