Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Rules in Development
Oregon OSHA is engaged in active rulemaking on the topics below. If you have questions about these projects, or you are interested in participating in the process, contact Oregon OSHA staff.
2026 Oregon OSHA Rulemaking Plan (as of January 30, 2026)
- Oregon OSHA is in rulemaking in response to two bills passed by the 2025 Oregon Legislature. Senate Bill (SB) 537 creates workplace violence prevention requirements to improve worker safety at certain health care sites and is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026. House Bill (HB) 2024 establishes provisions to improve worker safety in certain mental health care and substance use disorder treatment settings. For more information visit the
Health Care Employee Safety Advisory Group page.
- Oregon OSHA is in rulemaking to adjust OAR 437-001-0142 Annual Adjustment of Civil Penalties. Oregon OSHA already did temporary rulemaking to adjust the rule in response to uncertainties in the availability of the data for the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, West Region, All Items (West Region CPI-U), adopted November 21, 2025. As a result, Oregon OSHA is engaging in the permanent rulemaking process to change the BLS CPI-U data time period from October to October of each year, to October to September of each year. For more information visit the Annual Adjustments to Civil Penalties Advisory Group page.
- Oregon OSHA is re-engaging in the Hazard Communication rulemaking as Federal OSHA published its final set of corrections to their standard on 1/8/2026 and 1/14/2026 in the Federal Register. The federal standard was originally published on May 20, 2024, and Oregon OSHA had proposed adoption of the federal standard on September 24, 2024, however Federal OSHA’s publication of errors on October 9, 2024, and a note that more corrections were to come, prompted the Oregon OSHA to halt the rulemaking process. Now that final corrections have been published by Federal OSHA, Oregon OSHA intends to re-propose adoption of the revised and corrected federal standards. For more information visit the Hazard Communication Advisory Group page.
Summary: The Permissible Exposure Limits (PEL) Advisory Committee evaluated Oregon OSHA's regulated substances listed in our air contaminant rules. Lead and Manganese were the first standards selected for revision because workers in Oregon were exposed to these substances across a wide range of industries.
Timetable: The rulemaking process for Lead was initiated in late 2017 but was suspended to allow rulemaking for Manganese and COVID-19 to be completed. The rulemaking process for Lead was restarted in May of 2023. If you would like to join the advisory group that will meet again, contact Linda Pressnell and provide your name, contact information, and affiliation. For meeting minutes and more information about the advisory group activities, see the
Lead Advisory Group page.
Oregon OSHA staff contact:
Linda Pressnell
Oregon OSHA – Technical Specialist
350 Winter Street NE
Salem OR 97301-3882
Telephone: 971-330-0502
Email:
linda.s.pressnell@dcbs.oregon.gov