OSHA has appointed three new members to the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) and reappointed a fourth, ensuring the 12-member panel is fully staffed although it is uncertain whether the incoming Trump administration will utilize the committee tasked with crafting policy recommendations.
September 17, 2026
An EPA draft evaluation of a phthalate known as DCHP finds that inhalation exposure to the widely used plasticizer presents unreasonable risks to worker’s health, a finding that if finalized would require the agency to write risk management rules to address risks stemming from nine “conditions of use” (COU) that contribute to the finding.
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Employers are growing apprehensive about ensuring they are complying with California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) stringent new worker-safety standard for lead exposure in the construction and general industry sectors because they say the agency has not yet issued key guidance documents, even though the new rules went into effect Jan. 1.
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EPA’s final TSCA evaluation for the phthalate DIDP finds that six of the chemical’s uses pose “unreasonable risk” to workers warranting regulation -- a significant departure from its earlier draft that found risk from just one use -- likely teeing up attacks from industry groups that requested the review, and could now ask the incoming Trump administration to redo it.
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EPA’s long-awaited final TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde concludes that the ubiquitous chemical poses unreasonable risk to workers in a wide variety of sectors, and to consumers, but significantly loosens the occupational exposure standard after members of Congress and industry critics called the draft value a “de facto ban” on its use.
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Federal appellate judges are ordering the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and an employer to explain why their bid to overturn an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) decision blocking an enforcement settlement should not be dismissed, while signaling that the ALJ body may be allowed to defend its ruling directly if the case proceeds.
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EPA is denying a petition from GOP states and chemical industry groups seeking reconsideration of its final risk management program (RMP) rule, a move that will restart paused litigation over the rule though the incoming Trump administration is expected to ask the court to remand the measure to revise it along the lines of its prior rulemaking.
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An agriculture firm is arguing that OSHA’s long-standing guidance on how it divides enforcement authority over “rolling stock” with the Department of Transportation is too “vague” to support a 2021 citation that claims the employer “willfully” failed to comply with fall safety standards during railcar loading operations.
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EPA is defending the legality of its landmark rule banning many uses of the solvent methylene chloride and imposing strict worker-protection mandates on those that continue, saying the policy is “reasonable” and grounded in statutory language -- even as the incoming Trump administration could drop those positions next month.
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California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has adopted final, permanent standards to protect fabricated stone workers from exposure to crystalline silica despite continuing pushback from industry leaders, who claim that dozens of onerous new requirements and likely uneven enforcement will penalize businesses that are adequately protecting employees.
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OSHA has reached a settlement with Amazon over working conditions at its warehouses nationwide, requiring ergonomics improvements across the e-commerce giant’s operations following a years-long enforcement push by the agency -- and just days after Senate Democrats accused the company of unlawfully concealing injuries at the facilities.
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EPA has proposed a safety rule for pigment violet 29 (PV29) that would require facilities to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to workers who could be exposed to its dry-powder form, but in a break from its other risk-management policies, the agency is not setting an exposure limit for the chemical or seeking to ban any of its uses.
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The California Legislature is weighing a bill that would impose new restrictions and certification requirements for stone fabrication shops to protect workers from being exposed to crystalline silica, in the latest step of a years-long push to stem a rise in the deadly disease silicosis in the Golden State and elsewhere.
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Labor groups and employers are offering widely divergent responses to OSHA’s release of “comprehensive” workplace safety data from the first year of its long-debated electronic recordkeeping and reporting program, with industry fearing misuse of the information while unions and their allies are welcoming it as a major step for transparency.
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The Biden OSHA could advance as many as four rules ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, according to its new regulatory agenda, including a long-awaited proposed infectious disease safety standard, fall protection mandates for elevated walking surfaces, and several statute-specific whistleblower protection procedures.
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OSHA is again urging a federal court to permanently dismiss for lack of standing a California road authority’s challenge to a Trump-era memo easing implementation of federal scaffolding safety mandates, arguing that the plaintiff’s amended complaint still fails to establish that it has standing to bring its suit.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is touting what it says is the state’s first citation for a “willful” violation of outdoor heat safety standards, targeting a landscape maintenance company with a fine of more than $276,000 and underscoring the agency’s renewed commitment to bolster enforcement efforts.
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EPA has issued a final TSCA risk management rule for the solvent carbon tetrachloride (CTC) that sets strict new worker-protection requirements for many applications of the chemical while allowing industry to continue most if not all of those current uses, while extending key compliance deadlines from what it proposed last year.
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OSHA has finalized as proposed a long-awaited rule that expands fit-testing requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE) in construction -- a measure the agency has argued will protect workers who are smaller or larger than average adults, especially women, but which could be a rollback priority for the incoming Trump administration.
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Employer-focused attorneys are saying they expect California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) inspectors to focus primarily on “enterprise-wide” and less on “egregious” violations as part of an agency initiative to toughen enforcement policies by establishing those new categories of citations as required by a 2021 state law.
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