Environmentalists, steelworkers and others are asking a federal court to allow them to intervene in an industry suit challenging the administration's decision to list styrene as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen,” a move that if granted would allow the activists to defend the listing even if President Obama is not re-elected in November.
September 16, 2026
Organized labor groups are pressuring OSHA to make an enforcement push against crystalline silica hazards in the fast-growing shale gas extraction industry -- especially in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), the controversial method of extracting oil and gas that uses a huge amount of dust-generating sand along with water and chemicals. They cite new NIOSH data showing measures of non-compliance at fracking sites with OSHA's permissible exposure limit (PEL) for silica.
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A former top OSHA regulator has started floating legal arguments for a potential path forward for OSHA to explore a new ergonomics regulation that he argues could potentially overcome the OSHA rule's biggest obstacle to date -- the veto by Congress that killed the agency's last attempt to tackle the issue in 2001. The former official calls for OSHA to target a new rule “squarely” on workplace ergo hazards and recast design and exposure-reduction requirements as recommended controls.
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OSHA chief David Michaels recently told congressional investigators the agency “will soon provide policy guidance” putting employers on notice that they risk losing their cooperative program status if their worker safety incentives have the potential to discourage workers from reporting injuries, echoing a message the agency sent to Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) participants.
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A nonprofit public interest group has launched an investigation of OSHA cases and the results of the agency's probes, opening a planned series of reports on workplace issues with a piece about a deadly 2009 explosion at a Pennsylvania plant that ended without any citations against the company.
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President Obama has issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to assess the cumulative economic impacts of existing rules that are selected for review under the administration's ongoing burden-reduction effort and to prioritize reforms to reduce those burdens, a stronger requirement than past suggestions but one that appears to fall short of critics' calls to assess the cumulative effects of new rules.
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OSHA has unveiled plans to form an advisory panel to offer outside guidance to the agency on making improvements to the agency's whistleblower protection program (WPP), which OSHA officials have been trying to revamp in recent months in response to persistent concerns about the program's effectiveness in enforcing 21 federal laws dealing with employer retaliation. Whistleblower advocates lauded the move to open the restructuring process to outside input, but cautioned that it will be difficult to tell how useful panel is until OSHA releases more details.
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The Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it will consult with OSHA, and also factor in data it has asked NIOSH to collect, when it implements an upcoming rule that unions say could lead to increased ergonomic, laceration and amputation hazards faced by poultry workers by allowing for increased poultry line speeds. NIOSH says it has agreed to conduct a health hazard evaluation (HHE) at a South Carolina poultry plant to study concerns related to line speeds, but unions are pressing for a much larger research project dedicated to the issue.
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OSHA's recently announced corporate-wide settlement with a New England grocery store chain generated praise from worker safety advocates who say it demonstrates a much tougher posture by the agency in trying to require continued hazard abatement throughout a company's operations. Organized labor points to one aspect of the settlement as noteworthy -- unlike past agreements, the latest pact does not contain provisions calling for new talks between OSHA and the company over citations if new evidence of hazards arises.
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Occupational health stakeholders suggest an executive order by President Obama to tighten chemical exposure levels for federal workers and on-site contractors -- as sought by a group of OSHA advisors -- could create momentum for OSHA to update permissible exposure limits (PELs) across the private sector. The call for the executive order comes as OSHA plans to publish a request for information (RFI) as early as August seeking advice from stakeholders on how to update decades-old PELs covering the private sector.
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OSHA is modifying the supporting analyses of its proposed rule tackling silica hazards in response to White House concerns, but there is still no word on when the long-awaited proposal will be released for publication, a key official in the agency's standards directorate said Thursday (May 10).
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OSHA has put together an internal work group to study the contentious issue of how state plans can meet the goal of “at least as effective” as federal OSHA -- the crucial test of whether they meet requirements for federal backing -- and the group is drafting 15 performance measures tied to the evaluation process, an agency official said Friday (May 11). Once the agency has decided on the performance measures it will formally seek stakeholder input on the draft measures through a public meeting, possibly as early as June, the official told an OSHA advisory panel.
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Officials from the investigative arm of Congress in a newly released report call on OSHA to require employers that participate in cooperative efforts, including Voluntary Protection Programs and Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Programs, to meet criteria for safety incentive programs and other workplace safety policies.
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OSHA has launched a new national push to make employers aware of heat exposure hazards in the workplace, which the agency says accounts for thousands of worker illnesses every year. While the agency is billing its new campaign as largely an educational drive, industry attorneys tell Inside OSHA Online they fully expect OSHA to ramp up enforcement using the OSH Act general duty clause -- making the point that OSHA already made outreach on heat illness the priority of an earlier campaign.
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An OSHA advisory panel is urging Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to seek a presidential executive order calling for the “most protective” chemical exposure limits for federal workers -- as well as for contract workers for the government while they are on federal job sites -- to address concerns that OSHA’s permissible exposure limits (PELs) can potentially be outdated and inadequate.
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Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), chairman of the House science committee's oversight panel, says Congress should seriously consider calls by federal small business advocates to eliminate the National Toxicology Program's (NTP) biennial Report on Carcinogens (RoC) if the process for listing substances as carcinogenic is not adequately reformed.
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OSHA says it is “reviewing options” on how to proceed after a recent federal Appeals Court decision struck down the Labor Department’s legal position that it has authority to issue recordkeeping citations up to five years after a violation occurred if employer logs remain inaccurate. The agency says it will review and address outstanding recordkeeping citations “on a case-by-case basis.”
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OSHA has teamed up with NIOSH and a key union-backed construction safety organization on a co-branded educational initiative to share information with employers and workers nationwide about fall hazards, identified as a top concern throughout the industry. The two agencies in recent years have been working to ramp up their collaboration on educational efforts, and the new initiative comes out of talks led by NIOSH’s National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) for the construction sector.
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A key House Democrat on worker safety and health issues is urging the Obama administration to release OSHA's proposed rule tackling workplace silica hazards, which has been under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for nearly 15 months, much to the frustration of safety advocates. Rep.
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The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is preparing to conduct a comprehensive review of the Environmental Protection Agency's controversial Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program and ongoing reforms after congressional appropriators approved the NAS' plan in lieu of reviewing two chemical assessments that lawmakers had originally sought.
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