OSHA's recent citations against a New York supplier of plastic balls used in hydraulic fracturing, alleging process safety management (PSM) violations and other hazards, appears to underscore the agency's heightened attention to safety in the large-scale use of chemicals, with one OSHA official lodging concern about the storage or use of more than 1,000 pounds of formaldehyde.
September 16, 2026
OSHA on Monday renewed its alliance with the Society for Chemical Hazard Communication to reduce and prevent worker exposure to chemical hazards, a move that comes as OSHA explores the potential for new rulemaking to update its worker right-to-know regulations.
Date:
A review of Cal/OSHA's oversight of oil refinery safety, called for by state lawmakers following work site accidents, finds that facilities generally are complying with six out of seven new elements of the Department of Industrial Relations' evolving process safety management (PSM) requirements.
Date:
Federal chemical safety experts are raising concern about what they characterize as serious gaps in process safety management regulations on the 10th anniversary of the explosion and fire at BP Texas City refinery, which the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) says was the most serious refinery accident it ever investigated.
Date:
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has freed up investigative resources by completing phases of two major investigations and is now in a position to probe last month's explosion at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, CA, which could eventually lead to safety recommendations to federal and California OSHA.
Date:
Federal chemical safety investigators have pinpointed “hydraulic shock” as the root cause of an accident several years ago in Alabama that resulted in a disastrous release of anhydrous ammonia -- findings that come as OSHA and other regulatory agencies collaborate on a sweeping initiative to mitigate chemical plant safety hazards.
Date:
Federal chemical toxicity experts are anticipated to release soon their initial findings from studies regarding effects of human exposures to the substance involved in last year's disastrous spill and ensuing environmental disaster in West Virginia's Elk River, a chemical that worker health advocates are concerned poses a danger to workers if they come into contact with it during any similar future events.
Date:
Democratic-backed language that would allow OSHA to inspect small work sites -- those defined as 10 or fewer employees -- for purposes of identifying process safety management (PSM) hazards did not make it into Congress' final budget deal for fiscal 2015, with a Capitol Hill source telling Inside OSHA Online that House lawmakers blocked the provision when drafting the spending bill.
Date:
Federal chemical safety officials launched an investigation Saturday into a chemical release incident that took four workers' lives at the La Porte DuPont Plant near Houston, potentially bringing new attention to the substance involved, which is frequently used to odorize natural gas.
Date:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is weighing competing comments on improving its facility security program, with industry groups citing an "inherent conflict" with Environmental Protection Agency information-sharing requirements and urging changes to DHS' inspection protocols, while labor and community groups are calling for greater coordination with other federal programs, including OSHA inspections.
Date: