Persistent resource and staff shortages at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) are resulting in numerous investigations being disrupted as teams are pulled from one disaster site to another -- a growing problem highlighted by a series of chemical explosions in Texas and Louisiana in recent weeks that demand the board's attention, CSB Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso told Inside OSHA Online in an interview Thursday (June 27).
September 17, 2026
A key organization of safety experts is pressing lawmakers to increase funding for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) -- the lead agency that investigates industrial disasters -- citing recent resource-intensive operations that have put a strain on CSB's ability to deploy teams to incident sites.
Date:
OSHA has unveiled a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) targeting hazards from isocyanate exposure.
Date:
Senate Republicans likely will attempt to add a policy rider to the upcoming Labor appropriations bill, blocking OSHA from carrying out a controversial new policy opening up inspection walkarounds to third parties including union representatives, a GOP source on Capitol Hill tells Inside OSHA Online.
Date:
OSHA's national office is telling regional offices to instruct field inspectors to check for possible violations of employer requirements to adequately provide exits and keep means of egress unlocked and free of obstacles.
Date:
An OSHA plan unveiled this month to revise accident prevention signage regulations to incorporate newer consensus standards crafted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) follows an effort over several years by industry to persuade the agency to update the rules in general industry and construction.
Date:
A major umbrella group representing worker advocates has joined a global boycott of Hyatt Hotels spearheaded by the hospitality workers union UNITE HERE, intensifying pressure on the hotel chain to ease workloads and provide control measures in particular for alleged ergonomic hazards.
Date:
A second federal appeals court has struck down the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) contentious rule to require employers to post an official board notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act -- a rule fiercely opposed by Republicans who depicted it as a power grab by the labor mediation body.
Date:
An interim report by NIOSH researchers on the findings of a Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) of a poultry processing plant in South Carolina concludes that “most employees reported musculoskeletal symptoms,” usually involving the hand or wrist, in data collected from production employees.
Date:
The Louisiana chemical plant where a catastrophic blast on Thursday (June 13) took at least two lives and sent scores to the hospital had not been through an OSHA inspection, according to an agency official.
Date:
OSHA's recent rollout of a Local Emphasis Program (LEP) by its Idaho office to better enforce regulations on the safe use of powered industrial trucks could point to a larger trend of the agency enforcing such rules around the country, an industry attorney tells Inside OSHA Online.
Date:
A Democratic-sponsored amendment to require that military-branded garments made in Bangladesh and sold at base retail stores owned by the Defense Department comply with an enforceable fire and building safety accord passed the House as part of a Defense authorization bill Friday (June 14).
Date:
OSHA and the Labor Department Solicitor's Office are struggling with legal and policy issues surrounding the agency's recently launched effort to tackle hazards faced by temporary workers -- especially how to deal with questions about whether a temp agency or host employer has primary responsibility for safety and health training and oversight, top agency officials say.
Date:
OSHA plans to name Dorothy Dougherty, currently chief of the agency's standards division, as its new deputy assistant secretary to replace Richard Fairfax, who retired this spring, sources tell Inside OSHA Online.
Date:
OSHA has rolled out a new policy directing how agency regions will handle inspections triggered by fatalities and willful violations found at Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) sites, mandating that regional administrators suspend an employer's VPP status pending investigation of the case.
Date:
NIOSH has proposed a new set of 28 drugs that it wants to add to its list of potentially dangerous antineoplastic and other hazardous drugs used in health care settings, teeing up a public discussion about controls to ensure health workers are not harmed from exposures and which drugs should be included.
Date:
Worker advocates say a string of first responder deaths during massive explosion and fire incidents in recent weeks underscores a need for extending more stringent OSHA protections to emergency workers nationally, especially those public sector employees who receive no jurisdictional coverage by federal OSHA or a state plan.
Date:
Budget sequestration, the automatic, across-the-board cuts now rippling across the government, are having a serious impact on OSHA's efforts to protect worker safety and health, Acting Labor Secretary Seth Harris warned lawmakers Thursday (June 6).
Date:
The Labor Department has reached an out-of-court deal with ex-OSHA official Robert Whitmore to settle his claims against the agency for $820,000, bringing the legal fight to a close in a six-year feud between OSHA and the former official, who has long sharply criticized injury and illness recordkeeping practices and portrayed himself as an agency whistleblower wrongfully fired for speaking out.
Date:
The White House has come under attack from a limited-government advocacy group that says President Obama's failure to name a new Labor Department Inspector General (IG) -- along with several other internal watchdog posts across the federal government -- undermines his claims of transparency.
Date: