A New Jersey steel fabricator is asking a federal district court to declare the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) unconstitutional, aiming to build on new Supreme Court precedent limiting when Congress can allow administrative law judges (ALJs) rather than federal courts to review OSHA and other agencies’ enforcement actions.
EPA has completed its first new TSCA evaluation of an existing chemical since the Trump administration, finding that 10 of 21 uses for the flame retardant tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) contribute to “unreasonable risk” for workers and users of many products -- a conclusion that triggers a two-year statutory deadline for the agency to regulate those risks.
Industry groups representing fabricated stone manufacturing companies are pressing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials to ease certain sections of their proposed permanent rules to protect workers from exposure to crystalline silica, including by relaxing requirements for respirators and providing more incentives for in-shop improvements.
A fellow with the free-market American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is suggesting that Congress task existing offices with responding to the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision that overturned Chevron deference, as a way to balance Republicans’ interest in aggressive scrutiny of agencies’ handling of the decision with their reluctance to fund new programs.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is asking the D.C. Circuit to review two enforcement cases where administrative law judges (ALJs) rejected that agency’s claims that it has “unfettered” authority to drop already-issued citations in favor of settlement agreements, teeing up what could be precedent-setting decisions on the scope of its enforcement discretion.
A formaldehyde manufacturer is asking to intervene in environmentalists’ suit against EPA seeking deadlines for 20 overdue TSCA risk evaluations months after the two sides proposed a deal that would require a final formaldehyde analysis by Dec. 31, saying that schedule “is unreasonably short” and ignores some peer reviewers’ criticism of the draft evaluation.
California’s toxics department is posing new questions for stakeholder feedback as part of its proposal to require consideration of nail polish and related products containing triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) as a “priority product” under the state’s green chemistry program, an action the department is taking in part due to potential risks to salon workers.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has signed into law additional requirements for employers to protect retail employees from workplace violence incidents, about two months after similar new legislatively required measures took effect in California.
Industry groups say EPA’s draft TSCA evaluation of the solvent 1,1-dichloroethane (1,1-DCA) ignored key data on workplace exposures and ecotoxicity that they submitted under a 2022 testing mandate, leading to what they claim are “unfounded” determinations that it poses unreasonable risk.
Deputy OSHA chief James Frederick told members of the National Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) that the agency plans to complete the realignment of its regional offices announced in May by the start of fiscal year 2025 on Oct. 1, amid concerns from both federal officials and panelists over continued impacts of funding cuts on federal and state safety work.
OSHA chief Doug Parker is urging workers and safety advocates to use public comments on the agency’s proposed heat-illness standard to tell “stories” of dangers they and their co-workers have faced from excessive heat and how businesses have successfully addressed them, in order to illustrate the potential benefits of new safety measures.
Labor unions and worker-protection groups are at odds with employer representatives over California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) latest revised draft permanent workplace violence-prevention rules, even as companies continue to scramble to comply with interim statutorily required measures that took effect July 1.
An attorney for the free-market Center for Individual Rights (CIR) says the landmark Supreme Court decision that opened OSHA and other agencies’ long-standing rules to new legal challenges will likely produce a host of circuit splits requiring officials to apply different legal frameworks or even separate regulations in different regions of the country.
Employer groups are sharply attacking OSHA’s first substantive defense of its controversial rule allowing “third-party” employee representatives to take part in inspection walkarounds, arguing that the agency is refusing to acknowledge likely harms from the new policy while adopting a “baffling” reading of the OSH Act.
OSHA is seeking to dismiss South Carolina’s suit challenging an Obama-era rule directing states to match federal OSH Act penalty levels, renewing its charge that the state missed a statutory deadline and that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling easing some statutes of limitations has no bearing on this case because it could have sued at any time in that window.
California lawmakers have passed bills to tighten existing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) standards, including requiring the installation of metal detectors in hospitals, adding the opioid overdose medication naloxone hydrochloride to workplace first-aid kits, and compensating outdoor workers who suffer heat-related injuries because employers violated safety rules.
EPA is proposing to find that just three uses of the phthalate known as DINP pose unreasonable risks that could warrant regulation as part of a newly released draft TSCA evaluation, including two workplace applications that the agency is conceding may have already been abandoned by employers.
OSHA is formally publishing its heat safety standard for indoor and outdoor work, over a month after first unveiling text for the long-awaited regulation, beginning a 120-day public comment period that would close just weeks before President Joe Biden’s term ends -- and thus leaves further work on the rulemaking to the next administration.
California lawmakers have killed a bill that would have prohibited, beginning July 1, 2026, the sale and use of firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) containing intentionally added PFAS, and would have required state regulators to align worker-safety rules with a future national standard for PFAS-free firefighting gear.
Top Democrats on the House workforce committee are calling on OSHA to investigate recent reports that claim officials with California and South Carolina’s state plan agencies have been “tipping off” employers on upcoming agency inspections targeting not only safety issues but child-labor violations and potential trafficking.