Environmental groups plan to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to expand its ongoing revision of its National Contingency Plan (NCP) oil spill regulations to address responses to both conventional oil spills that the agency was already examining as well as spills of unconventional fuels, such as tar sands oil and volatile shale oil – a push that occurs partly because of concerns about chemical-related health risks to workers in oil spill response.
September 17, 2026
An eight-month delay in OSHA efforts to initiate a small business review of its planned regulations to reduce combustible dust hazards in the workplace appears to show the agency's standards division has found the rule more complicated than at the outset of the rulemaking process, according to sources closely following the issue, who also note that the Obama administration at higher levels seems to have little appetite for pushing controversial OSHA rules such as combustible dust for the time being.
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OSHA's decision to re-categorize an injury and illness prevention program rule as a “long-term action” on its new regulatory agenda sends strong signals that high-level Obama administration officials do not see the program rule as the high priority that current OSHA leadership has touted, and according to one union source the White House apparently “put the kibosh” on the rule.
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OSHA has unveiled a new spring regulatory agenda that punts OSHA's planned rule on injury and illness prevention programs to the “long-term actions” category – signaling the agency believes it will take an undetermined and protracted period to get a rule out – while also pushing back by roughly eight months the start of a small business review panel on an envisioned rule to protect workers from combustible dust hazards.
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OSHA has signed an agreement with a key organization representing staffing providers that, according to the document, will lead to wider dissemination of data about OSHA's focused enforcement efforts around the country including National Emphasis Programs (NEPs) – a process that as it plays out could give employers much more information about OSHA's plans on both enforcement and regulatory fronts.
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OSHA is pressing a longstanding position that employers must take protective measures to guard against worker heat illness hazards, again bringing up an issue that has companies on alert from compliance officers, and one that the bellwether Cal/OSHA program has long pressed although the extent of enforcement by that state has been questioned by the labor community.
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A possible OSHA move to include construction in the scope of a new proposed rule tamping down on worker exposures to the toxic metal beryllium would not lengthen the time it takes to get the rule out, according to sources, who note that OSHA's key advisory panel on construction issues has urged regulators to include a lower exposure limit in construction operations, primarily composed of abrasive blasting work.
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The sudden resignation of a U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) member has exposed deep divisions over both the controversial “safety case” approach that the board's chair is pushing for chemical catastrophe prevention as well as broader concerns over a top-heavy CSB structure that gives rank-and-file appointees less policy influence -- internal tensions detailed in an exclusive conversation Thursday (May 22) between departing CSB member Beth Rosenberg and Inside OSHA Online.
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OSHA tells congressional investigators it agrees with strong recommendations in a newly issued report sought by Democrats that the agency step up interagency cooperation and data-sharing to help prevent chemical explosions like the disaster last year in West, TX, and also concurs with a need to reach out to the fertilizer industry on safety issues, but stops short of fully assuring the Government Accountability Office that it will move ahead on a rulemaking effort to cover ammonium nitrate hazards under its process safety standard.
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NIOSH researchers have been closely following the issue of potential worker sensitization to nickel, particularly though dermal exposure, and the agency has published guidance on safe practices for working with nanoparticles in lab environments, an agency spokeswoman says, as a new report comes out purportedly demonstrating for the first time an actual case of worker illness resulting from overexposure to nickel nanoparticles.
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OSHA chief David Michaels tells Inside OSHA Online that more employers throughout the country and their employees would benefit greatly if they negotiate union-backed health and safety programs much like the arrangement the agency reached through recent extensive negotiations with Republic Steel on a host of alleged violations cited at the steel company's operations, saying formal injury and illness prevention programs are of mutual benefit for all parties involved.
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A member of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has told the White House she is resigning effective June, the board's chairman tells Inside OSHA Online while acknowledging there are differences of opinion among CSB members in some critical areas including the so-called “safety case” approach to preventing catastrophic chemical accidents but not directly tying Beth Rosenberg's resignation to the debate over how stringently the investigative board should push the controversial policy, which could someday affect recommendations to OSHA.
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A pair of federally funded children's and farmworker groups are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen requirements in the agency's proposed revisions to the worker protection standards (WPS) by expanding buffer zones around fields where pesticides are sprayed, citing neurodevelopmental risks to children exposed to pesticides.
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OSHA is exploring whether it can return to a 1990s-era enforcement stance under which the process safety management (PSM) standard applies to oil and gas production facilities – a posture that was voided after the petroleum industry argued the agency had not conducted the required economic feasibility analysis specific to production sites when it first formulated the rule.
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OSHA will likely face new pressure to raise the profile of worker health concerns related to nanomaterials as researchers come out with a high-profile new study in a medical journal they say shows the first-ever case of direct harm to a worker from exposure to nanoparticles -- with worker health experts saying the issue needs greater attention even if a future regulatory effort proves elusive.
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Arizona's state OSHA plan has filed papers formally challenging OSHA's view that the program fails to meet minimum federal standards to protect workers from fall hazards -- likely setting up a protracted fight between the agencies with potential long-term implications for how state plans are defined as “at least as effective.”
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Chemical safety investigators are calling on Washington state's OSHA plan to initiate a series of changes designed to beef up oversight of workplace equipment and safety procedures after they reached conclusions from a sweeping investigation of the Tesoro refinery accident that took seven lives and sparked uproar over safety conditions in the refining industry.
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Facing competing calls from industry and environmental justice advocates over how to strengthen plant safety, the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in order to take comment on whether or how to revise its accidental release prevention program, a move that suggests any changes to the program are likely a long way off.
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A key construction safety advisory group to OSHA, in what is viewed as a rare move, has come out against an agency regulatory proposal by rejecting the agency's plan to remove the 2010 cranes and derricks standard's references to insulating links and proximity alarms as safety measures.
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OSHA and NIOSH have signed an agreement on scientific research that could potentially bolster future regulatory action, in what NIOSH chief John Howard tells Inside OSHA Online is at least partly in response to a report from congressional investigators two years ago saying the research and regulatory agencies should attempt to work more closely together.
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