Chemical industry safety groups are pushing back against advocates’ calls for EPA to expand its Risk Management Plan (RMP) chemical facility safety rule to include the substance ammonium nitrate and to account for climate change impacts, charging that such changes would be statutorily unworkable, redundant and could worsen supply-chain issues.
September 17, 2026
OSHA is preparing to open a new public comment period and hold at least one hearing to aid its development of a permanent version of the 2021 COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare facilities, after vowing in court filings to complete work on that rule before the end of the year, according to a source familiar with the matter.
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Public health experts are praising the White House’s newly updated COVID-19 guidance for its emphasis on ventilation, but are urging OSHA and states to develop broader indoor air quality standards that account for environmental disparities and focus on filtration measures to protect workers against aerosol pollutants as well as viruses.
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Lawmakers appear poised to approve a fiscal year 2022 omnibus spending bill that would boost OSHA’s funding by $20 million as part of an overall $1.8 billion for the Labor Department’s (DOL) worker protection agencies -- a $42 million hike from current levels and just $2 million shy of the White House’s request.
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OSHA has announced a three-month initiative that will escalate its follow-up inspections of hospitals and other skilled nursing facilities that have prior pandemic-related citations or complaints, as the agency seeks to develop a permanent COVID-19 standard for the sector in the coming months.
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A new decision from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) appears aimed at clarifying the limits of its test for determining when separate entities may be considered a “single employer” in OSHA enforcement actions, holding that related companies with common management may be held liable for recurrent offenses.
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OSHA is issuing an interim final rule establishing new procedures for how it will investigate complaints of retaliation against whistleblowers who disclose information or assist in investigations of their employers’ allegedly illegal tax-related conduct, the first in a series of planned rulemakings to bolster protections for whistleblowers.
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Labor unions are urging Oregon’s worker-safety agency to strengthen its recently proposed permanent heat illness prevention standard by eliminating several key exemptions they say provide businesses with too much flexibility over worker conditions, while at the same time federal OSHA has begun weighing feedback on its own national heat stress rulemaking.
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President Joe Biden is directing OSHA to update guidance to employers on how to protect workers from COVID-19 as part of his newly announced plan to transition the country from a pandemic to an endemic approach to combating the virus, prompting fresh questions about how OSHA’s COVID-19 enforcement policies could shift in the coming weeks.
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Worker safety advocates say the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) new report urging the Biden administration to account for climate and environmental justice (EJ) risks in an upcoming update to its risk management program (RMP) facility safety rule bolsters their longstanding calls to restore and strengthen the Obama-era version of the rule, especially as scientists see climate risks growing.
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OSHA says it expects to publish a suite of new and updated heat stress-prevention products in the coming months, with outreach targeted at minority and non-English-speaking workers, while aiming to release additional materials later this year based on feedback from a new advisory panel.
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Members of an OSHA advisory panel are expressing support for the agency’s preliminary plans to begin incorporating broad risk-based safety frameworks in its guidance documents and rulemakings, but are cautioning officials to first conduct outreach to inform employers about the new model before developing enforcement materials.
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The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has released a slew of new research on the effectiveness of workplace COVID-19 controls, including those related to masking and distancing, with advice that could bolster the case for tough new safety measures in OSHA’s permanent COVID-19 standard for the healthcare sector.
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OSHA head Doug Parker says the agency is not formally withdrawing its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the healthcare sector but will not enforce the rule while a union-led lawsuit plays out, spurring outrage from labor advocates who are urging the agency to ramp up protections and implement a permanent standard for healthcare workers.
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Employers’ attorneys say OSHA’s recent COVID-19 enforcement action against an Ohio auto parts supplier includes several suggested mitigation steps that “should be gravely concerning to employers,” arguing that many safeguards the agency is saying are necessary to avoid citations are either impractical or outside its OSH Act authority to require.
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OSHA’s deputy director of standards and guidance says the agency’s push to promulgate a final COVID-19 standard for the healthcare sector in “six to nine months” will likely alter the timeline for some related rulemakings it outlined in the fall unified agenda, including both its proposed workplace violence and infectious disease standards for the industry.
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Environmentalists are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “act now” to expand its chemical facility safety rule, particularly to include ammonium nitrate, arguing that a recent fire at a North Carolina fertilizer plant serves as a “wake up call” for the need to bolster protections against future disasters.
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OSHA is proposing the first update since 1998 to its safety standard for industrial powered trucks, aiming to align design and manufacturing requirements with modern consensus standards as part of a broader effort to revamp a slew of outdated regulations, including a provision that would allow it to use guidance rather than rulemaking for future updates.
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Chemical industry sources say OSHA has been “dismissive” of their concerns over its controversial proposal to add new data requirements for downstream chemical uses to its updated Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), and are not ruling out legal action if the agency proceeds with the rule as proposed.
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California could become the first state to mandate COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment for all public and private sector workers under a newly proposed bill that its sponsor says aims to fill the gap left by the Supreme Court’s Jan. 13 decision to stay federal OSHA’s vaccine-or-testing emergency standard for large employers.
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