The semiconductor industry is urging the White House to limit workplace safety provisions in EPA’s upcoming TSCA rule for the solvent n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) to codifying the sector’s existing practices, arguing that those safeguards already reduce exposures to near zero.
September 16, 2026
An industry attorney is highlighting novel language in EPA’s proposed TSCA rule for the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) that requires companies to limit worker exposures only “to the extent possible” as evidence that its occupational exposure standard is unworkably strict, underlining likely objections to the policy from trade groups and employers.
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EPA has sent its proposed TSCA rule governing the solvent n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), likely teeing up renewed battles over the Trump-era risk evaluation and any workplace exposure limit based on it, after industry groups asked the agency to rewrite the review over alleged scientific errors.
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In an early sign of how EPA will defend its TSCA proposal phasing out uses of trichloroethylene (TCE), the agency is arguing in supporting documents that less-stringent alternatives backed by industry groups would be impractical -- including a statement that the rule’s short-term worker protections are not “feasible” over the long term.
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EPA’s proposed TSCA rule for trichloroethylene (TCE) avoids taking a definitive stance on the long-simmering debate over contested research linking it to fetal heart defects, proposing a worker exposure limit based on that effect but also a less-stringent alternative that uses other effects, though even that option is much tougher than OSHA’s limits.
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Employer attorneys are raising concerns that OSHA’s upcoming revisions to the Hazard Communication Standard, or HazCom, will impose an array of new and unpredictable burdens for the chemical industry on an international scale, most prominently a mandate to gather data on “any hazards” substances may cause.
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The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is asking a federal court to formally bar EPA from using the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) contested peer review of the agency’s draft formaldehyde risk assessment in any of a litany of applications, including as support for strict workplace exposure limits under TSCA.
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A workplace safety lawyer says OSHA could seek to cite employers for failing to comply with EPA's planned TSCA workplace exposure limits for several chemicals given the "very clear" intersection of the two agencies' missions, but will face several key legal questions if it tries to invoke "reach-over" authority to directly enforce TSCA mandates.
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Nine trade groups are asking EPA to initiate a pre-proposal small-business review of its hotly anticipated formaldehyde rule even before finishing the risk evaluation the policy will be based on, saying that unusual step would help ensure small employers are aware of the rulemaking process and can prepare for -- or help avert -- strict new workplace limits.
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OSHA has sent a long-pending final rule to update its chemical hazard communications standard (HCS) for White House review, after industry groups warned the proposed version would require them to gather a “vast” amount of new information on such substances -- and even support more stringent policies from other agencies.
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