Democratic lawmakers decry Osha’s push to roll back worker respiratory protections

Elizabeth Warren and others joined by unions and industry experts in warning against the weakening of regulations The senator Elizabeth Warren, the congresswoman Ilhan Omar and several other Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) to abandon a rollback of respirator mask regulations, a change the lawmakers say would weaken worker protections against hazardous substances. Under the proposed rules, employers would face fewer requirements to provide workers with respirators masks when working with substances including “lead, asbestos, formaldehyde and inorganic arsenic, among other chemicals”, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Osha assistant secretary, David Keeling, a former UPS and Amazon executive. Continue reading...

Michael Sainato · Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 3:00 AM
US news | The Guardian

Democratic lawmakers decry Osha’s push to roll back worker respiratory protections

Elizabeth Warren and others joined by unions and industry experts in warning against the weakening of regulations

The senator Elizabeth Warren, the congresswoman Ilhan Omar and several other Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) to abandon a rollback of respirator mask regulations, a change the lawmakers say would weaken worker protections against hazardous substances.

Under the proposed rules, employers would face fewer requirements to provide workers with respirators masks when working with substances including “lead, asbestos, formaldehyde and inorganic arsenic, among other chemicals”, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Osha assistant secretary, David Keeling, a former UPS and Amazon executive.

This page shows an excerpt; reporting belongs to the original publisher. Some images or embeds may be omitted compared with the live article.