Workplace health advocates are objecting to proposed bipartisan legislation to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) -- which the Environmental Protection Agency uses to regulate chemical manufacturing and imports -- for lacking specific worker protections.
September 17, 2026
A senior House Democrat has filed legislation to mandate that OSHA issue a safety standard to establish safe patient handling, mobility and injury prevention regulations, adding pressure at the federal level on an emerging issue where several state OSH programs are already making strides.
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Committee votes are scheduled Wednesday (July 24) on President Obama's two pending nominations to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
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Thomas Perez, the newly confirmed secretary of Labor, will almost certainly continue the tough enforcement action on workplace safety and health that has characterized the last several years under the Obama administration's OSHA, experts tell Inside OSHA Online.
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Health worker advocates are putting intense pressure on OSHA to expand its National Emphasis Program (NEP) on health care to include hospital inspections, in light of a scathing new report from Public Citizen blasting the level of federal action to prevent work injuries and illnesses in the health care sector overall.
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Senate Democrats added language to a new spending measure directing the Labor Department to release OSHA's planned regulations to cut down on crystalline silica exposures in the workplace, intensifying pressure on the Obama administration to issue the long-awaited rule.
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The U.S. Navy has produced a detailed plan to control beryllium exposures at its Fleet Readiness Center Southwest facility in Coronado, CA, in response to concerns by OSHA about workers in vicinity of the toxic metal.
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Labor Secretary-designate Thomas Perez, after months of a bruising back-and-forth mostly at the committee level over controversies surrounding his tenure at the Justice Department and whether he brings an overly political bent to DOL, finds himself in the thick of a possible “nuclear” war in the Senate, with Democrats on the verge Tuesday (June 16) of triggering a change in rules to clear his and other nominations by President Obama.
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Massachusetts lawmakers are set to consider a bill that would extend coverage of OSHA standards to state workplaces, and a source closely following the legislation says the measure, while having fallen short of the necessary support in earlier sessions, has a chance of passage this year largely because of pressure from Gov. Deval Patrick (D) on workplace safety and health concerns.
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Two senior House Democrats on Wednesday (July 10) ripped a group of major retailers for a safety alliance plan for Bangladesh garment factories the lawmakers say competes with, and falls short of, a global public/private sector initiative already launched.
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Senate environment committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is urging states to review and tighten policies to ensure the safe storage of ammonium nitrate, saying the Environmental Protection Agency is not moving fast enough to strengthen safety measures after the explosion of ammonium nitrate stored at a fertilizer facility in West, TX, that killed 15 people in April.
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OSHA hopes to forge ahead on long-term efforts to revise its chemical exposure standards to reflect newer scientific evidence by formally collecting data from stakeholders ahead of the next potential regulatory steps.
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OSHA plans to propose by November a new rule on injury and illness recordkeeping that effectively would reverse the impact of a recent controversial federal court decision invalidating the Labor Department's legal position that the OSH Act statute of limitations continues as long as recording violations occur within the five-year reporting period.
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Senate Republicans are signaling that GOP staff will closely examine the details of any potential injury and illness prevention program mandate that OSHA issues as a proposed rule.
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OSHA has reached a major settlement with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that stipulates enterprise-wide abatement of alleged electrical hazards faced by postal employees.
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OSHA plans to take regulatory steps to address process safety management (PSM) issues surrounding the use and storage of reactive chemicals, along with potential hazards involving flammable liquids and spray finishing, according to a new regulatory agenda unveiled by the administration Wednesday (July 3).
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OSHA has initiated an enforcement program in its Western region to protect workers in the automotive maintenance and repair industry from dangers related to automotive lifts -- with inspections targeted to car dealers, repair and maintenance shops, gas stations, and automotive parts, accessories and tire stores.
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An unusually wet harvest in the Midwest has safety professionals concerned about grain engulfment and other hazards inside grain handling facilities, and OSHA has launched an extensive educational campaign to warn employers and workers about the risks.
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OSHA's recently rolled out initiative to tamp down on industrial exposures to isocyanates could signal that the agency wants to give greater weight to health concerns overall in its National Emphasis Programs (NEP), a former top standards official with the agency says.
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Chemical safety experts say a closer look by OSHA at the processes under way at the West Fertilizer Co. in central Texas -- particularly under the agency's explosives and blasting agents standard at 29 CFR 1910.109 -- could have helped prevent the disastrous explosion at the chemical mixing plant in April.
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