OSHA is expressing deep concern about workers dropping from rooftops during snow clearing activities and urges employers to use fall arrest systems and personal protective equipment (PPE) where warranted, citing several recent incidents, including a fatality, involving snow removal. OSHA's effort to educate employers and workers about hazards associated with snow removal dovetails with a similar initiative to warn them about winter weather hazards in general.
September 17, 2026
OSHA and NIOSH are voicing concern about exposures to respirable silica dust in stone countertop manufacturing, as OSHA continues analyzing data toward a potential final rule on silica before the end of the Obama administration.
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The Obama administration is trying to reassure congressional appropriators of OSHA's intent to exhaustively review the wide array of data it has collected over the years as it attempts to move forward with a crystalline silica rulemaking, but the move is also generating deep concern among organized labor officials that detailed analysis could derail the rulemaking once Obama leaves office.
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The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is pointing to a California plan for strict process safety measures for oil refineries, saying the state's proposed requirements for analysis and use of safer technologies could serve as model for to improve facility safety, as OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency explore the concept under a presidential executive order.
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OSHA continues to strongly emphasize fall protection in the building industry and said Wednesday (Feb 18) it would again hold a national safety “stand-down” to provide information to employers and workers on the issue, in concert with NIOSH and other expert partners.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through a new report from NIOSH scientists, cites continuing rates of silicosis in urging “primary prevention” and medical monitoring of workplace silica exposures through a range of measures recommended by federal health agencies, perhaps adding further data OSHA could use in the agency's recently accelerated effort on a rulemaking to reduce silica risks.
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Contractors carrying out publicly funded projects with the state -- or early bidders on those jobs -- would be subject to occupational safety and health licensing or qualifying requirements under bills being pushed in several states in a national effort set in motion by Public Citizen, with Maryland possibly on the verge of enacting such legislation.
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A bill recently introduced in the Maryland legislature, and drawing sharp criticism from safety and health activists, would require the state's OSHA inspectors to give notice to many employers of inspections about to be initiated, unless the visits are based on concern about an imminent danger -- but the proposal appears stalled for the immediate future.
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The Environmental Protection Agency is weighing use of existing Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) authority to restrict uses of the controversial solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), including a novel TSCA section 6 rule to limit its use -- a process that would require consultation with OSHA on whether less burdensome requirements could be used to mitigate unreasonable risks.
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NIOSH officials are calling on local fire departments around the country to adopt comprehensive safety and health plans, including adoption of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1500 Standard detailing how to manage such programs, and also require the incident commander on the scene to conduct a hazard risk assessment before operations begin.
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A furniture manufacturer and OSHA are in bitter conflict regarding the agency's rigorous policy under the Obama administration of so-called “regulation by shaming,” which is how the agency describes efforts to widely publicize major enforcement actions against alleged bad actors, as the feds accuse the sprawling Wisconsin-based manufacturer of more than 1,000 work-related injuries in three years and hits the company with $1.76 million in proposed fines.
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Arizona repealed a contentious state law that put in place residential fall protection requirements that differed from federal OSHA policy, caving on an issue that had embroiled the agencies for several years, and only after OSHA published a “rejection” of the state law and threatened to pull the state plan if the concern was not remedied.
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OSHA is pressuring lawmakers to hike statutory civil penalties for workplace safety and health violations by pinpointing the issue in the president's fiscal 2016 budget request to Congress -- in a move Washington sources say appears to be more of an advocacy push than a specific legislative proposal -- and contrasting the current OSHA penalty structure to the Environmental Protection Agency's much larger fines.
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Federal OSHA will formally reject a controversial Arizona state law that differs from federal requirements on fall protection but that proponents say is actually more effective in residential construction, according to a Federal Register filing set to be published Friday (Feb. 6) -- rekindling a longtime dispute not only over the fall protection policy, but the standards for gauging effectiveness of state plans.
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Industry representatives, particularly from small business, have told OSHA they believe existing data on work-related infections among health care workers (HCW) is inadequate to justify an expansive potential rule tackling infectious diseases in hospitals and other patient care facilities.
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The House is poised to approve new packages of sweeping reforms to the federal regulatory process -- all of which could to some degree affect OSHA rulemaking -- closely on the heels of passing the comprehensive Regulatory Accountability Act (HR 185), but whether any of the Republican-authored measures can gain serious traction in the Senate and eventually land on President Obama's desk is by no means certain.
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Administration officials are seeking a major funding increase for OSHA's whistleblower protection program (WPP) next fiscal year, requesting $22.6 million or an increase of almost 29 percent over the program's current level, as the agency makes strides in addressing a backlog of complaints under the OSH Act and numerous other federal laws with anti-retaliation provisions.
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The Obama administration has again put NIOSH Education and Research Centers (ERCs) and the agency's Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Programs (AFF) on the chopping block in the next fiscal year's proposed budget -- reductions that would save millions of dollars in NIOSH discretionary funding, but that are fiercely opposed by numerous occupational safety and health stakeholders.
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President Obama wants Congress to approve an increase for OSHA of nearly $40 million over current levels in the next fiscal year, with substantial new investment in federal enforcement and whistleblower protection programs -- likely teeing up a debate this year among appropriators at least at the subcommittee level over beefing up federal safety and heath programs and helping pay for those activities in the states.
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States are chafing against a quietly issued federal OSHA mandate that has the effect of precluding some small work sites from participating in the agency's small business on-site consultation program -- and the temporary exemptions from programmed inspections that go along with it -- if they employ more than 250 people, or fall under that cap but are owned by larger companies that meet or exceed 500 people in total employment.
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