OSHA’s enforcement chief has issued a letter of interpretation stating that the process safety management (PSM) standard allows host employers to train contract workers on requirements for handling hazardous chemicals, holding that host-led instruction satisfies the rule as long as the contractor’s direct employer ensures its adequacy and maintains records.
September 17, 2026
EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff used the launch of the agency’s landmark TSCA risk-management proposal for methylene chloride to temper top officials’ prior statements that cast the rule and its worker-protection standards as a model for future chemical regulations under the law, saying key elements of the draft rest on case-specific factors.
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An employer attorney says Amazon’s challenge to Washington State’s requirement for firms to abate alleged safety violations before administrative review of their citations is “ripe for an appeal” after a federal district court rejected the suit, holding out hope that further litigation could scrap the policy, though he warned that the retailer’s own arguments undercut its claims.
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EPA’s newly proposed TSCA rule for methylene chloride would require a quick phaseout of most uses of the solvent but allows others to continue under a strict workplace exposure limit with monitoring and protective-gear mandates based on OSHA standards -- a line the agency’s chemicals chief says her office drew based on its “trust” in those sectors to adopt its safeguards.
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The head of workplace safety practice at the law firm Conn Maciel Carey called OSHA’s severe violator enforcement program (SVEP) “unconstitutional” during a recent panel on the agency’s recent moves to strengthen it, arguing that it imposes penalties on employers before they can seek judicial review of pending citations, in violation of their due-process rights.
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A new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) claims the expansion of nitrogen fertilizer production since the 2013 West, TX, explosion is endangering public safety and the environment due in part to lax rules for the sector, urging EPA and OSHA to bolster facility-safety requirements for storing ammonium nitrate among other policy changes.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is floating a draft plan to overhaul its years-old chemical security program, seeking to break from EPA methods that were the basis for its 2007 rule for determining which chemicals and facilities to regulate, though the program’s future hinges on Congress reauthorizing it before it expires in July.
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A new decision from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) largely affirms an OSHA citation stemming from a 2018 shipyard explosion that killed three workers, agreeing with the agency that a salvage firm failed to train its employees on safety measures for confined spaces but rejecting its claim that the violation was “willful.”
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California lawmakers are advancing a controversial bill to require California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to expeditiously require workplace violence-prevention measures in employers’ existing employee-safety plans, with supporters saying that while the agency is already working on such rules for non-healthcare facilities it is taking too long to finalize them.
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EPA is proposing new measures that would significantly strengthen regulatory oversight of emissions of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) from sterilization facilities and other settings, unveiling plans to set strict new workplace safety standards under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) as well as air emissions limits to mitigate high cancer risks.
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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of EPA’s draft TSCA risk management rule for the solvent methylene chloride, teeing up formal release of a proposal that a top official has said will signal how the agency plans to regulate other substances and tailor chemical-safety rules to protect workers from occupational exposures.
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The White House has started interagency review of OSHA’s draft final rule expected to undo a Trump-era rollback of Obama-era electronic recordkeeping and reporting requirements for workplace health and safety data, just as a federal appeals court is preparing to resume long-stayed litigation over the loosened rule.
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The Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued modified waivers of statutory line speed limits for all 10 poultry processing facilities that were at the center of unions’ lawsuit over a Trump-era waiver program, opening the door for that suit to potentially resume after a stay of over a year.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials have released first-time proposed worker-safety rules for heat illness prevention at indoor worksites, a move expected to spark intense debate between labor groups and employers ahead of a meeting of the agency’s standards board in May.
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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has finished its review of OSHA’s proposed rule that the agency says will “clarify” specific personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements for construction workers, a move that could enhance protections against toxic chemical exposure and has been in development for almost four years.
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OSHA leaders say the agency has begun certifying two types of visas for workers who were victims of human trafficking, forced labor and other crimes, it announced, nearly two months after officials announced plans to issue the documents in order to protect workers who are undocumented immigrants or subject to time-limited visas during investigations.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has upheld OSHA’s citation against a roofing company over an employee’s failure to use fall protection while briefly assessing the positioning of a crane director, refusing to apply what it says is a narrow exception in the standard for activity before the “actual start of construction work.”
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A new decision from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) underscores what the panel says is the higher standard OSHA must meet to show safety violations by a “controlling” employer at a multi-company workplace, scrapping an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) decision that upheld the agency’s citations in one such case.
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California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has narrowly rejected setting up a process to amend its workforce-safety rules for farming equipment to allow automated tractors and other machines to operate independently in the field, with several panel members arguing that more research data is needed before the agency begins investigating a rule.
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The Asbestos Disease Organization (ADAO) is asking EPA to expand the window to comment on newly published worker-safety data related to its proposed ban on current uses of chrysotile asbestos, even as it warns the agency against letting its review of those comments delay a final asbestos rule from its non-binding October target.
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