An environmental group is urging EPA to tighten worker protections in a slate of proposed rules governing “significant” new uses of 32 chemicals, claiming they fall short of Trump-era enforcement orders and must be reworked to follow the hierarchy of controls (HOC) rather than focusing on protective gear.
September 16, 2026
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has granted EPA’s request to remand without vacatur the Trump-era risk evaluation of methylene chloride, rejecting objections from unions, states and environmental groups that the agency’s plan to rework its analysis of the toxic solvent will not address several elements they claim are unlawful.
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A new draft guide from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says key data needed to set exposure limits for engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) remains scarce despite an EPA reporting requirement, while touting several agencies’ assessments of the substances as models for workplace protections.
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Four staff scientists at EPA’s chemical safety office are asking the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to review their claims of long-running “fraud and corruption” in the TSCA program, saying managers and political officials across multiple administrations intervened in a host of cases to ease chemical risk findings, workplace safety mandates and other aspects of their risk evaluations.
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EPA chemicals chief Michal Freedhoff says the agency could begin to finalize new versions of at least seven of the 10 chemical evaluations issued by the Trump administration starting in spring 2022, while three of the documents have been deemed “likely sufficient” in their current forms and will drive proposed management rules.
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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is seeking data and expert advice on use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by “underserved” workers -- a project that could aid not just workplace regulations but also EPA’s effort to tighten its approach to PPE in its chemical risk assessments and rules.
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The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) gearing up to peer-review the Defense Department’s (DOD) revised approach to developing a standard for workplace exposures to trichloroethylene (TCE), marking the latest step in DOD’s long-running struggle to reconcile EPA and OSHA’s drastically different findings on the solvent.
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Speakers at EPA’s June 16 environmental justice (EJ) consultation for impending rules on trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE or perc) urged the agency to focus on impacts to workers, and heard praise from industry on what one official said is a new promise from officials to seek briefings on industrial hygiene practices.
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The Biden EPA is seeking a court’s permission to revisit its Trump-era findings on risks posed by workers’ uses of the solvent methylene chloride, including what level of personal protective equipment (PPE) use would mitigate those dangers, in the first step of what could be a sweeping move to bolster protections for workplace chemical exposures.
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Industry groups are urging OSHA to loosen its proposed labeling rule for hazardous chemicals and other substances, arguing that key provisions conflict with EPA policy and require companies to gather “vast” new data on risks posed by downstream chemical uses, while California says the agency should scrap the rulemaking altogether.
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