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.
September 16, 2026
OSHA has sent a long-promised proposal to update its safety standards for emergency responders for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review -- a move that means the plan will likely miss its November target but could see release by the end of the year or in early 2024, more than 16 years after it was first announced.
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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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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are defending their proposal to strengthen worker-safety rules for lead exposure in the construction and general industry sectors from ongoing attacks by employer and industry groups, touting the science behind stringent new health-risk thresholds and arguing that industry has overstated their likely compliance costs.
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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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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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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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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of EPA’s proposal to regulate trichloroethylene (TCE), setting the stage for renewed debate on which of two potential workplace exposure limits the agency should apply after a years-long clash over the solvent’s potential links to fetal heart defects.
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Major unions are asking EPA to reconsider its proposed TSCA rule that would allow employers to continue active uses of carbon tetrachloride (CTC) with stricter worker protections, arguing both that the agency has overlooked some applications of the solvent entirely and that it should ban those where it “lacks evidence” firms can meet a strict exposure limit.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials have released a revised emergency temporary standard (ETS) for crystalline silica exposure in “engineered stone fabrication shops,” aiming to approve the rule in December amid what they say is a “crisis” in which a growing number of workers are developing advanced silicosis, a serious lung disease.
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