California’s workplace safety agency recently deemed that the process for cutting and shaping a material commonly used for kitchen countertops cannot be safely regulated and moved to become the first in the US to ban the process.

The only problem: the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health isn’t allowed to create a standard that can’t be reasonably followed even if people are being harmed, attorneys say. The agency is hamstrung by state laws that limit it to creating standards that must be economically and technologically feasible for industries.

It’s better to be proactive about safety, even in ways that aren’t compelled by federal rules, because facilities are exposed to liability any time there’s a safety mishap, according to Philip Jacklin, continuing education program manager at Diversified Fall Protection.

“If a worker gets injured on the job, even if there’s not a safety requirement in place that was in violation, the employer is still held responsible for mitigating it,” Jacklin told Facilities Dive in an interview.

Regulations administered by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration include a general duty clause, which requires employers to furnish a workplace free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees. It acts as a catch-all for hazards not covered by specific OSHA standards, Jacklin said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently revised its guidelines (CPL 02-02-079) for enforcing the Hazard Communication (HazCom) Standard to include provisions of the agency’s 2024 update and address issues with the 2012 update to the standard. Earlier this year, OSHA extended compliance deadlines in the 2024 update to May 19 to allow the agency to update its guidance.

The inspection procedures directive instructs the agency’s compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) on how to conduct inspections for compliance with OSHA’s HazCom Standard. The new inspection procedures cancel the agency’s 2015 directive and became effective on May 19.

The document is called the Field Operations Manual (FOM), and it lives on OSHA's website. It runs to 17 chapters covering everything from how compliance officers plan inspections before they arrive to how penalties are calculated after citations are issued. Chapter 3, Inspection Procedures, is the one that matters most for pre-inspection preparation. It describes the opening conference, the walkaround, the records review, and the specific factors that compliance officers are trained to evaluate when determining whether a safety management system is functioning. It is not a secret. Most EHS teams have not read it.

When two workers died last month in a violent chemical reaction at Ames Goldsmith Catalyst Refiners near Charleston, federal records showed the facility had previously been cited for safety violations in 2018.

But that doesn’t mean inspectors had regularly checked on the operation in the years between.

In fact, the facility had not been inspected again before the fatal incident, highlighting a problem with workplace safety in West Virginia and across the country: federal inspectors do not regularly inspect the most dangerous workplaces.

Here’s how workplace safety inspections work in West Virginia, and why labor advocates are calling for more oversight to keep workers safe on the job.

A total of 419 California workers lost their lives on the job in 2024, according to data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) cited April 28 by the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). The state agency honored workers who lost their lives on the job, as well as those who have been injured or become ill in the workplace, on Workers’ Memorial Day, the anniversary of the passage of the federal Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970.

Governor Gavin Newsom issued a Workers’ Memorial Day proclamation recognizing the state’s achievements in improving working conditions for fast-food workers, protecting warehouse workers from unsafe production quotas, and ensuring vulnerable workers aren’t exploited or put in dangerous situations.

A National Council for Occupational Safety and Health report raises alarm over increased heat-related jobsite risks as the construction industry enters “the most dangerous time of year for heat exposure.”

Released during Workers’ Memorial Week, noting those who have died or suffered work-related injuries and illness, the 2026 Dirty Dozen report says it has identified 12 companies that “put workers’ lives at risk through unsafe practices, inadequate protections, and systemic neglect.” Among those are home builder D.R. Horton and Massachusetts contractor Revoli Construction, which is facing a $4.6 million fine after a fatal trench collapse.

The School Bus Safety Company announced today they have just completed the recreation and updating of their OSHA Compliance Training Course for both school bus technicians and drivers.

The OSHA Compliance Course is a single source management tool designed specifically for school bus operations. This course will help managers quickly and easily achieve compliance with OSHA regulations. There are many hazards in a bus workshop and the technicians deserve the required safety training to make their workplace safer.

This 2026 edition of “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect” marks the 35th year the AFL-CIO has produced the only comprehensive report on the state of safety and health protections for America’s workers. This report features national and state information on workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses, as well as workplace safety inspections, penalties, funding, staffing and public employee coverage under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act). It also includes information on the state of mine safety and health, key topics such as artificial intelligence, and prevention of workplace violence, musculoskeletal disorders, chemical exposures and heat illness, and transitions in policies on government occupational data reporting, transparency and equity.