OSHA regulators are taking a close look at removing from the agency's process safety management (PSM) standard a longtime exemption for flammable liquids kept inside atmospheric storage tanks, a move they believe would override a 1997 administrative law judge ruling that OSHA says has allowed companies to skirt the PSM requirements even when the tanks are connected to a process covered by the safety standard.
September 17, 2026
A major union engaged in a joint organized labor/industry effort to come up with feasible approaches to dramatically lower beryllium exposures in the workplace is strongly urging OSHA to consider adopting as a regulatory proposal a set of recommendations unveiled by the partnership and sent to OSHA nearly two years ago.
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Federal chemical safety experts are urging California regulators to adopt the “safety case” approach to chemical plants that is used in some European countries, saying similar regulations at the state level would effectively patch holes in federal OSHA's regulatory regime, and citing a report from their probe of the 2012 Chevron refinery blast in Richmond, CA, as underscoring the need for a change in direction.
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Arizona's state OSHA plan has taken aggressive enforcement action against the state's forestry agency after probing the circumstances of the Yarnell Hill fire that took the lives of 19 fire fighters in June, an event that focused national attention among safety professionals on the need for implementing fire fighter protections under the OSH Act.
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OSHA stands to reap millions of dollars that could go back toward compliance assistance and enforcement efforts as House and Senate lawmakers sign off on a two-year budget accord that provides partial “relief,” as budget negotiators describe it, of the government-wide sequester of agency funds that kicked in this year under the Budget Control Act.
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Public Citizen was planning a lawsuit to force the Obama administration's hand on OSHA's long-sought regulatory proposal to clamp down on worker exposures to crystalline silica and probably would have gone forward with the suit if the agency had not recently issued a proposed rule tackling the issue, the consumer interest group's president tells Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interview.
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Supreme Court justices decided in conference Friday (Dec. 13) to turn down review of a case with broad implications for OSHA preemption of local safety codes, letting stand a lower court ruling that favored the Labor Department's legal position that the federal agency's workplace requirements do not take precedence over more stringent municipal laws intended to protect both workers and the general public.
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OSHA's enforcement officials devoted to construction issues are voicing concern about both rising actual numbers and overall rates of injuries and fatalities in the sector as the economy improves and starts showing signs of accelerating building activity, and warn construction firms to take action now on safety measures to head off a further escalation.
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A Louisiana petrochemical plant has been cited for OSHA safety procedure violations following a deadly blast earlier this year that drew national attention to chemical facility safety and security, including one “willful” citation by the federal agency -- a development that could also reflect intensifying pressure by OSHA on the industry through enforcement tools as well as a growing focus on process safety management (PSM).
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Possible health hazards associated with nanomaterial exposures continue to stick out on OSHA's radar, with experts at the agency closely following any emerging research that could point to health impacts on workers and lead to future OSHA activity in the nanotechnology arena, officials in the standard-setting division told stakeholders Friday (Dec. 6).
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The Supreme Court plans to decide this week whether to review a lower court ruling that effectively upholds OSHA's legal stance that federal health and safety regulations do not preempt more stringent laws of general applicability at the local level, a case that has been closely watched in the district and appeals courts because of its perceived implications for OSHA preemption issues generally.
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OSHA officials are signaling that a new standard on beryllium exposures that is applicable only to the construction sector could be limited to lowering the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for the toxic metal, though that is only one option being considered and regulators are also weighing a range of medical surveillance measures to screen workers for potentially developing beryllium disease or cancer.
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Just a few straightforward lines OSHA slipped into an otherwise routine set of guidelines for written feedback on the agency's recently unveiled regulatory proposal on silica hazards has led to the rulemaking equivalent of a firestorm, with industry furious that OSHA is asking stakeholders with technical comments to voluntarily disclose the funding sources and by implication, who has a financial stake in the policies they are advocating.
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OSHA is eying the possibility of making several major changes to its process safety management (PSM) standard, designed to protect workers from catastrophic events inside chemical plants, and process safety enforcement policies, according to sources who say the agency's thinking may be reflected in a series of questions OSHA is asking about how regulators could improve the PSM and related standards.
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Some industry advocates view the Obama administration's latest regulatory agenda for OSHA as fitting hand-in-glove with a more aggressive stance in the safety and health arena on both the standards and enforcement fronts, possibly emblematic of a tougher overall emphasis on regulations in the president's second term.
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OSHA officials are signaling that a draft proposal for new regulations to protect workers from beryllium exposures could be released in the next few months, sources tell Inside OSHA Online, noting that the agency intends to update a group of advisors on the rulemaking later this week.
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The partial shutdown of the federal government that ran over two weeks in October had a substantial impact on workplace safety and health enforcement efforts nationwide, the White House says in a recent report, with OSHA unable to conduct most of its usual inspection regimen with most compliance officers furloughed.
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OSHA has set next spring as the new time frame for commencing a small business impact review of a proposed rule that would tackle the complex issue of combustible dust hazards in the workplace, according to the Labor Department's new regulatory agenda, released by the White House alongside other agencies' last week.
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OSHA chief David Michaels found himself answering the same basic question, albeit phrased different ways, several times in a conference call on OSHA's campaign to inform employers of chemical hazards: How could the agency somehow leverage the newly available resources in a hypothetical enforcement action? Each time his answer was basically the same: OSHA has no plans to use the educational push as an enforcement tool. But still, questions linger – with industry persistently raising apprehensions about how the new data tools propagated by the agency could be used.
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OSHA plans to implement several changes to its mechanical power press rule including removal of a paperwork requirement involved in weekly inspections of the machinery -- revisions the agency says will contribute to an administration-wide effort to reduce regulatory burdens wherever possible.
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