As it weighs how and whether to adopt Obama-era worker injury and illness electronic reporting requirements, Cal/OSHA is facing questions over whether it has adequate resources to establish the infrastructure required for such a system, which could prove to be a deciding factor in whether the state opts to pursue a formal rulemaking.
September 17, 2026
A chemical industry trade association is suing EPA over its first-time Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ban on consumer uses of paint-strippers containing methylene chloride, charging the measure goes too far by unintentionally limiting access to some commercial uses even though it does not intend to.
Date:
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Group (ADAO) is urging EPA to perform a strict assessment of asbestos’ human health risk, citing in part findings by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and others that there is no safe level of exposure to the toxic mineral as some fear EPA will soften its analysis.
Date:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will hear oral argument Aug. 5 in public interest groups’ challenge to the constitutionality of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), teeing up a decision that could limit or even block lawmakers’ ability under the 1996 law to revoke rulemakings from OSHA and other agencies.
Date:
Over the objections of a broad industry coalition, a California Senate panel has advanced a controversial bill that would require Cal/OSHA to strengthen its standards should it find that the Trump administration has weakened any equivalent federal OSHA standards below levels that were in place at the end of the Obama presidency.
Date:
Environmentalists say the Trump administration’s just-announced monthslong delay of its self-imposed deadline for finalizing a rollback of an Obama-era rule tightening facility safety Risk Management Plan (RMP) requirements may suggest the plan is “dead in the water” as it signals ongoing legal doubts about undoing the changes.
Date:
EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC) is urging the agency to halt proposed rollbacks of an Obama-era rule strengthening safety requirements at industrial facilities as well as its risk assessment of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO), warning that the efforts could increase public health risks for poor and minority communities.
Date:
Labor attorneys say the OSHA review commission’s “landmark” ruling upholding the agency's use of General Duty Clause authority to address a fatal workplace violence incident is a precursor to OSHA issuing a workplace violence standard, and that until then, companies should take steps to avoid potential citation.
Date:
OSHA is considering expanding its so-called “lockout/tagout” safety standard governing excess energy in power equipment to allow control circuit type devices -- such as push buttons and selector switches -- to be used to shutter equipment and to extend the standard to robotic equipment, which is increasingly being used in manufacturing.
Date:
Appellate judges appear to agree with EPA lawyers that labor and other groups generally lack standing to challenge the agency's framework rule for evaluating risks of existing chemicals under the revised toxics law, but they left the door open to sue over officials' decision to preclude legacy uses from the scope of any evaluation.
Date:
OSHA appears poised to remain without a Senate-confirmed administrator for the foreseeable future after the Trump administration's long-delayed nominee, Scott Mugno, withdrew his name from consideration despite eased Senate rules that had been expected to ease his path to confirmation.
Date:
Worker advocates are urging OSHA to bolster protections for whistleblowers who report health and safety violations by speeding investigations of claims and supporting Democrats' proposals to improve protections, though a contractor says it would be more efficient to first identify whether some whistleblowers are just disgruntled employees.
Date:
On the eve of a key appellate hearing, EPA and environmentalists are sparring over the groups' standing to challenge one of EPA's framework rules for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), responding to a court order that asks the parties to address the issue in the upcoming oral arguments.
Date:
OSHA has issued its long-awaited final rule amending a series of existing standards to remove or revise duplicative, unnecessary, and inconsistent requirements though, as expected, the measure drops an Obama-era plan to expand when OSHA’s so-called “lockout/tagout” safety standard applies to power equipment that is shut off for repairs.
Date:
A labor union attorney says environmental statutes' citizen suit provisions could give workers a powerful tool in their fight to reduce their exposures to hazardous chemicals, because laws such as the Clean Air Act impose much greater penalties for violations that increase exposures compared to workplace safety statutes.
Date:
The chairman and ranking member of a Senate governmental affairs committee panel are poised to introduce bills they say will make “surgical fixes” to the regulatory process by creating a test to ensure health and safety rules are effective via future retrospective reviews and providing more opportunity for early input on proposed measures.
Date:
Top House Republicans say they could agree to a compromise with Democrats on a bill to limit asbestos risks, though they say any deal will have to address concerns that a bill does not unduly limit production of chlorine used to treat drinking water and does not impose infeasible testing and other requirements on federal agencies.
Date:
An Arizona-based group is stepping up its effort to have a federal appellate court overturn the Congressional Review Act (CRA), the law Republicans and President Donald Trump used to repeal a suite of Obama-era worker safety policies issued by OSHA.
Date:
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta says the Labor Department (DOL) is considering writing a new procedural rule that would limit OSHA and other entities' use of guidance documents to make policy in the wake of an Inspector General finding that the agency, during the Obama administration, did not take adequate steps when issuing guidance, opening it up to legal challenges.
Date:
EPA's recently finalized rule regulating renewed uses of asbestos expanded the number of applications subject to regulation but cut some of those applications from a related risk evaluation of existing uses, angering critics who say the agency is further narrowing any future toxics rule on existing uses and shows why a total ban on asbestos is needed.
Date: