A new NIOSH health hazard evaluation (HHE) report describes exposures to metals at a facility where additive manufacturing machines were demonstrated for potential customers. The report is dated February 2025 but only recently became available on the agency’s website.
The machines at the facility featured two types of additive manufacturing processes: powder bed fusion (PBF), which uses lasers to melt a layer of metal powder into a moveable bed; and directed energy deposition (DED), which uses a nozzle to deposit and melt metal powder onto a build platform. When NIOSH personnel visited the facility in March and May 2023, employees were engaged in printing metal parts, sieving powder, de-powdering printed parts, and post-processing tasks.
NIOSH found exposures to airborne particles in the PBF room and in some production areas. Metal powders had migrated through the facility due to airflow patterns, and some employees’ skin and clothing were contaminated with metals whether they were working directly with metal powders or not. Powders found in the facility included aluminum, hexavalent chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, molybdenum, nickel, tin, titanium, and vanadium.
While exposures were below occupational exposure limits, NIOSH recommended several actions for the facility to better protect workers. These included enhancing ventilation, redesigning processes to contain dust, encouraging employees to wash their hands to remove metals from skin, using wet cleaning to remove metals from surfaces, and requiring employees to wear powered air-purifying respirators in certain areas.
For more information, download the HHE report from the NIOSH website.
OSHA “is continuing to examine” a possible rule related to prevention of heat-related injury and illness, the agency announced last week in a news release about the Department of Labor’s regulatory agenda, which was recently updated for spring 2025. The latest action listed for OSHA’s heat rulemaking is the informal public hearing that began on June 16 and concluded on July 2, 2025. No further planned actions related to the heat rulemaking are listed in the regulatory agenda, but OSHA’s website states that a post-hearing comment period is open until Sept. 30 for those who submitted notices of intention to appear during the hearing. Recordings and transcripts from the hearing are available via the agency’s website.Many proposed rules appear for the first time in the regulatory agenda, including 16 proposed rules that affect provisions regarding respiratory protection in some of OSHA’s substance-specific standards. Another new proposed rule seeks to amend the respiratory protection standard to remove some medical evaluation requirements for filtering-facepiece respirators (FFRs) and loose-fitting powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs).
Another deregulatory action appearing for the first time in the regulatory agenda is titled “OSHA Standards Improvement Project 2025.” According to the agenda, this project will examine standards covering general industry, maritime, construction, and agricultural industries.
The only OSHA rules in the final stage of rulemaking are a rule that would update design and construction requirements for the agency’s powered industrial trucks standard, a rule regarding procedures for the use of administrative subpoenas, and rules regarding procedures for how retaliation complaints are handled under the Whistleblower Protection Statutes, the Anti-Money Laundering Act, and the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act.
For more information on these and other rules, view the spring 2025 agency rule list for the Department of Labor.
The EPA recently announced a settlement with the St. Paul Brass Foundry Co. for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act in March 2023 at a facility at 954 Minnehaha Ave. in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. The settlement will require the company to reduce lead and particulate matter emissions, which is already underway.“EPA works side-by-side with state agencies to protect human health and the environment,” said EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel. “We’re working closely with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to ensure St. Paul residents can breathe safely. This settlement will significantly reduce emissions, and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will monitor air quality in the area going forward.”
St. Paul Brass melts and processes lead-containing alloys to make castings for commercial, military and aerospace applications. In March 2023, EPA alleged St. Paul Brass violated its permit by failing to operate air pollution control equipment within acceptable ranges. In June 2023, EPA alleged St. Paul Brass violated EPA regulations for foundries. St. Paul Brass subsequently provided documentation of its compliance with these foundry rules.
EPA monitored air quality next to the St. Paul Brass facility between June and December 2024. This data showed compliance with EPA’s air standard for lead. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) set up a permanent air monitoring site near the facility in June 2025. The state’s initial month of results also show lead levels are below EPA’s air standard.
The company has added high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters to two existing baghouses, which will reduce lead and particulate matter emissions from those baghouses by 99.97%. The company will also be required to limit the maximum lead content of alloys produced. A new permit application must be submitted to MPCA that includes requirements to operate the new HEPA filters and limit lead content in alloys.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced new guidance on New Source Review (NSR) preconstruction permitting requirements to provide much needed clarity for the buildout of essential power generation and reshoring of manufacturing. This action provides flexibility to begin certain building activities that are not related to air emissions, such as installing cement pads, before obtaining a Clean Air Act (CAA) construction permit.EPA intends to initiate a rulemaking to revise the definition of “Begin Actual Construction” in EPA’s NSR regulations and codify how permitting authorities may distinguish between emissions units and other parts of a stationary source facility that are not an emissions unit or part of an emissions unit. By doing so EPA intends for it to be easy to understand what parts of construction need an NSR permit and what construction activities can proceed without an NSR permit.
The CAA’s NSR program is a preconstruction permitting program that requires certain stationary sources to obtain permits prior to beginning construction. The NSR permitting program applies to both new construction and to modifications of existing sources.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration renewed its alliance with the Recycled Materials Association with the shared objective of improving the safety and health of workers in the recycling industry.During the two-year agreement, OSHA and ReMA aim to produce valuable resources, including educational articles, fact sheets, and toolkits designed to prevent and reduce workplace hazards. The Alliance intends to develop training resources and informational tools for employers and workers on industry safety and health hazards including transportation, musculoskeletal injuries, slips, trips and falls, needlestick injuries, lithium battery-related incidents, hazardous energy (lockout/tagout), and heat and cold stress.
Participants will share information at industry conferences and engage in discussions at forums and meetings. A significant focus of the Alliance's outreach efforts will be directed towards small- and medium-sized employers, ensuring that all businesses within the recycling industry have access to essential safety information and resources.
OSHA's Alliance Program helps the agency develop working relationships with organizations committed to workplace safety and health. This includes trade and professional associations, labor unions, educational institutions, community and faith-based groups, and government agencies.
Alliance participants work with OSHA to provide workers and employers with information, guidance, and resources to promote safety and health in workplaces. Alliances also ensure that workers know their rights and employers understand their responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
News Links
Trivia Question of the Week
