Daily News

A slew of prominent associations representing employers and industry sectors has sued OSHA over its controversial “third-party” worker walkaround rule, incorporating arguments voiced by a range of trade groups and attorneys that the rule exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority, violates several federal laws and poses a threat to workplace security.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) has renewed its emergency temporary standard (ETS) for crystalline silica exposure in “engineered stone fabrication shops,” and state lawmakers are advancing a bill that would establish even more stringent worker-protection rules for the sector, underscoring the escalating concern over dangers facing its workers.

Industry groups and attorneys say OSHA’s newly finalized revisions to the hazard communication standard (HCS) still pose serious “hurdles” for chemical manufacturers and users, even after the agency rewrote a controversial requirement for safety labels to address dangers posed by downstream uses of toxic or hazardous substances.

Worksafe, a California-based employee-advocacy group that often weighs in on workplace safety issues, has filed what appears to be the first formal lawsuit over EPA’s final overhaul of the TSCA “framework” for risk evaluations of existing chemicals, underlining the focus unions and worker advocates are placing on the agency’s chemical-safety program.

The United Steelworkers (USW) is signaling that it will seek to formally defend elements of EPA’s TSCA chrysotile asbestos rule that industry groups are seeking to loosen or overturn, in one of the first substantive moves of what could be a precedent-setting legal battle over the landmark regulation.

California lawmakers have approved a statewide audit of California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) inspection and enforcement processes, amid criticism that the “understaffed” agency is failing to adequately protect agriculture and other workers from on-the-job dangers and fails to properly cite and collect fines from violators.

OSHA has released its final rule updating the hazard communication standard (HCS) that governs safety labels for toxic, flammable and otherwise dangerous chemicals, including a redone version of its requirement to address hazards posed by chemicals’ downstream uses after employers argued that the original language would impose massive new burdens on them.

OSHA used a recent meeting with its advisory panel on construction issues to preview the “structure” of its impending heat illness and injury prevention standard, highlighting how it plans to identify heat hazards in the rule, set triggers for action, and require emergency response planning and heat condition monitoring, among other elements.

A former Trump administration official is warning that EPA’s latest reworking of how it sets existing chemical exposure limits (ECELs) under TSCA could be legally flawed, saying he does not believe the law “allows” the agency to craft stringent occupational exposure levels during risk evaluations but loosen the mandates in rulemaking.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is calling on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to expand its call for data on firefighters’ exposures to wildfire smoke, pointing to research needs on the effects of those exposures, while urging both NIOSH and OSHA to craft clearer guidance for employers.

OSHA and an Ohio contracting firm are sparring over whether the Supreme Court should let stand an appellate ruling that upheld OSH Act provisions empowering the agency to craft safety standards under the nondelegation doctrine, including a new test the employer is floating that would block Congress from giving agencies discretion to address “major questions” in rulemaking.

A coalition of Republican officials from 14 states has formally challenged EPA’s controversial update to the risk management program (RMP), signaling that they will argue the new rule’s mandate for facilities to assess and adopt “safer” technologies carries no clear benefits that would justify its compliance costs.

The states, led by Oklahoma Attorney General (AG) Gentner Drummond, filed a petition for review late on May 9 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

OSHA is reworking the borders between several of its regions and abandoning the long-standing numbered designations for those offices, saying the changes will help it “direct its resources effectively and make the agency more resilient” in part by prioritizing states that lack delegated authority to implement the OSH Act.

The federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is sending litigation over the Biden administration’s landmark TSCA rule phasing out uses of chrysotile asbestos to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit -- the same court that overturned the agency’s first attempt to ban asbestos more than 30 years ago when it drastically narrowed EPA’s authority to regulate existing chemicals.

EPA’s industry and Republican critics are warning of a wave of imminent litigation challenging the agency’s recently finalized risk management program (RMP) rule updates and seeking to block it from taking effect later this week, charging it exceeds the agency’s authority and places unnecessary burdens on covered facilities.

Employer attorneys are stepping up efforts to prepare companies for the July 1 compliance deadline of California’s landmark, multi-layered workplace violence-prevention rules, while more broadly warning that other states will likely adopt similar standards based on the new policy.

California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would prohibit, beginning July 1, 2026, the sale and use of firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) containing intentionally added PFAS, and that would require state regulators to align worker-safety rules with a future national standard for PFAS-free firefighting gear.

The legislation comes amid a growing push to ban per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in firefighting turnout gear, with Massachusetts and New Hampshire currently considering similar bills.

Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su told lawmakers at a May 1 House hearing that OSHA expects to release a “notice” advancing its long-awaited heat danger standard “later this year,” and will propose a workplace violence standard for healthcare facilities “soon” -- which would be a landmark step for a rule that has been in development since the Obama era.

California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would require schools to exclude teachers and other employees with COVID-19 from the workplace with pay for a set period of time, amid opposition from state health officials who argue that such mandates should be based on their frequently updated pandemic guidance rather than rigid statutory mandates.

EPA has finalized its TSCA risk management rule for the solvent methylene chloride that top officials say will be a model for future chemical policies under the reformed law, maintaining the strict workplace exposure limit in its 2023 proposal while lengthening phaseout deadlines for some uses and adding a de minimis threshold sought by industry.

“Exposure to methylene chloride has devastated families across this country for too long, including some who saw loved ones go to work and never come home,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan says in an April 30 press statement.