Environmentalists are concerned that language in the bipartisan Senate bill reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) could overturn the agency's strict policy for assessing chemicals' cancer risks, which assumes that some chemicals have no safe exposure level and subjects them to conservative risk assessment methods and regulatory limits.
September 17, 2026
The Environmental Protection Agency withdrew from White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) review two long-delayed proposed rules intended to more strictly enforce the agency's existing Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) authorities but which industry groups and some lawmakers have strongly opposed.
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Ellen Widess, the chief of Cal/OSHA who sources say has had a turbulent relationship with industry, has abruptly resigned, leaving surprised observers speculating as to whether there are political implications to the resignation.
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The staffing industry views educating staffing firms and their clients about the shared concerns and responsibilities related to temporary worker safety and health as the central priority in OSHA successfully carrying out its newly launched temp worker initiative.
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OSHA is moving forward with an enforcement initiative in the mid-Atlantic that focuses partly on safe patient handling, an effort that is being lauded by health care industry worker advocates.
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Agricultural retail industry officials are detailing options for EPA to update its 1997 warning on ammonium nitrate's explosive dangers by crafting new recommendations on storage and crediting existing industry and other programs that aim to reduce plant safety risks from the fertilizer, as the agency weighs whether to revise the policy.
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A new report from a Washington think tank blames the cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act as well as looming reductions in spending bills for scaled-back OSHA enforcement at a time when it says the agency is already stretched thin.
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Organized labor will closely examine worker training provisions OSHA wrote into its proposed standards to reduce occupational exposure to crystalline silica, a source knowledgeable about the issue says.
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OSHA has floated several “regulatory alternatives” to its proposed new standards to reduce worker exposures to crystalline silica, offering industry and other stakeholders a chance to justify other options in reaching the goals of the rulemaking.
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Flight attendants and other crew members, except flight-deck crew, will get long-sought OSHA protections under a new policy issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday (Aug. 22).
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Some safety and health stakeholders argue that cost-benefit data included in OSHA's newly proposed crystalline silica standard show undue pressure on the agency to conduct economic analyses of new regulations that ultimately do not factor into whether it moves forward with key rulemaking priorities.
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Industry sources say OSHA's newly released proposed rule to reduce worker exposures to crystalline silica, given its breadth across business sectors and the reach of the standard, could represent the biggest OSHA proposed regulation in terms of impact on business since the agency's abortive effort to regulate ergonomic hazards in the late 1990s.
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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.
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Newly released government data show work-related deaths last year dropping slightly by percentage relative to 2011, but the construction sector and specific high-risk industries suffered setbacks, with fatalities on the rise.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is exploring the possibility of creating an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process to resolve OSHA cases that rise to the full commission level on appeal, in an effort to deal with a backlog of cases.
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Federal OSHA has issued an in-depth report on the performance of California's state plan that reflects persisting differences between how the federal government and states track safety and health program effectiveness.
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Union officials are praising OSHA for what they consider a rigorous approach to concerns raised by organized labor about alleged hazards at a large steel product manufacturer, expressing “gratitude” that the agency aggressively responded to a host of formal complaints.
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OSHA chief David Michaels says the agency is actively working to confront a growing problem -- how to uniformly enforce health and safety standards given the increased “atomization” of the work force largely caused by the use of contract and temporary labor.
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OSHA has launched an intensive effort to cut down on excessive noise exposures in the manufacturing sector in New England, in what one industry official speculates could serve as a “test case” to roll out more aggressive noise control enforcement across the country.
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A multinational company's effort to produce its own safety standards in dealing with “hot work” -- any operations that can involve flammable materials -- could offer a potential model for other employers to both meet and exceed OSHA standards on the issue.
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