OSHA chief Douglas Parker says he is looking to employers’ comments to help fill gaps in OSHA’s data on workplace heat dangers and mitigation methods as the agency crafts a long-awaited rule on the subject, telling viewers on an Oct. 9 webinar that the wide scope of its proposed standard “raises lots of issues” that will require stakeholder input to resolve.
September 16, 2026
Vehicle manufacturers say EPA’s Trump-era evaluation of industrial and commercial uses of chrysotile asbestos overestimated exposures, cherry-picked data and used flawed science to find that that nearly all such applications pose “unreasonable risk” to workers, backing chemical-sector groups’ calls to scrap both the rule based on the review and the analysis itself.
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Trade groups are pushing EPA to craft a “consistent approach” for setting de minimis exemptions in its TSCA risk management rulemakings, while also renewing pressure on the agency for more transparency on workplace exposure limits for the solvent 1-bromopropane (1-BP) in particular -- limits some say should have been crafted by OSHA instead.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed into law a pair of bills aimed at expanding worker safety at refineries and hospitals, as well as legislation requiring workplace first-aid kits to contain the opioid overdose medication naloxone hydrochloride.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill that sought to ensure workers compensation benefits for heat-related injuries in the agriculture sector, objecting to the prospect of linking California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) and the state’s workers compensation agency, while citing several existing programs that he says already protect employees from heat.
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EPA’s response to comments on its final risk evaluation of the flame retardant tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) lays out arguments against requests from industry and environmental groups alike to significantly broaden the review or rework its conclusions, defending both the TSCA office’s analysis of TCEP and its approach to setting workplace exposure limits.
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Chemical manufacturers say EPA’s landmark rule phasing out chrysotile asbestos uses -- largely over workplace dangers -- “usurps” OSHA’s statutory power to protect workers, amid broader arguments seeking to cabin EPA’s power to regulate existing chemicals under the reformed TSCA.
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Unions representing industrial workers and firefighters, as well as a broad coalition of environmentalists and public-health advocates, are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to conclude that EPA’s landmark TSCA rule for chrysotile asbestos is unlawfully weak, arguing that the agency unjustifiably declined to regulate or even evaluate risks from several uses of the mineral.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is weighing whether to enact a bill unanimously backed by state legislators that would expand the state’s stringent petroleum refinery worker-safety standards to biorefineries and other facilities, in response to labor union concerns about a recent series of fires at renewable fuel production plants that caused serious injuries.
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David Michaels, who led OSHA for nearly all of the Obama administration, says local authorities should issue their own workplace protections for heat rather than waiting for the federal agency to enact its proposed standard, noting that a final version is likely years away and probably would be scrapped under a second Trump administration.
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A chemical firm trying to intervene in litigation over the deadlines for 22 overdue EPA risk evaluations of toxic substances says the agency and environmentalists are raising “straw man” arguments against its participation in the case in order to prevent it from extending the proposed 2024 settlement deadline for formaldehyde.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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