In a major blow to OSHA’s ongoing efforts to modify existing safety and health standards through informal agency guidance, a unanimous panel of federal judges recently invalidated a July 2015 OSHA memorandum that had significantly narrowed the Process Safety Management standard’s retail facility exemption. Retail facilities have been exempt from the PSM standard since its May 1992 promulgation, based on the understanding that hazardous chemicals are usually only present in such facilities in small quantities that are not likely to create a risk of a catastrophic release. In 1992, OSHA issued a letter defining retail facilities as those deriving 50% or more of their income from direct sales of highly hazardous chemicals to end users. 
 
*This article was originally published on Arent Fox's Managing OSHA blog. To read the full article, click here.