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.

The agency is also trying to end a requirement for employers to provide medical evaluations to employees who wear specific types of respirators in their work, the letter noted.

Lawmakers said the rules show how the Department of Labor, the parent department of Osha, “is endangering workers and prioritizing the interests of unscrupulous employers over Americans who work hard to provide for their families”, according to the letter.

On average, more than 5,000 Americans die annually from occupation-related respiratory illnesses. In recent years, the rates of silicosis and coal-related worker’s pneumoconiosis have been on the rise due to artificial stone used for countertops and increased silica exposure in coal seams.

The lawmakers noted that the agency issued the proposed rules in July 2025 without providing required evidence or requesting information needed to implement them. They also criticized the agency for holding a procedural hearing in August, during Congress’s recess when no lawmakers were on Capitol Hill to discuss the rules.

“Most Osha standards take years to move through the same steps these respirator rules have [moved through] in a matter of months,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter was also signed by the senators Chris Van Hollen and Cory Booker; the congresswomen Pramila Jayapal, Rashida Tlaib and Jasmine Crockett; and more than 20 other congressional Democrats.

Unions and medical and industry experts, including the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, the American Industrial Hygiene Association, National Nurses United and North America’s Building Trades Unions, have warned Osha against pulling back standards.

The Associated General Contractors of America, a construction industry trade association, said in a comment against the rules that “quality safety regulations save contractors money in the long run and any deregulatory benefits associated with the proposed rule will be outweighed by potential liability down the line”.

Lawmakers said the rollback is part of a broader deregulatory effort at Osha under the Trump administration, which had proposed more than 60 deregulatory rule changes in the Department of Labor last year.

“The Trump administrations claims that it is a ‘champion of the American worker’, but the [labor department] has demonstrated its disregard for workers’ lives by trying to roll back the regulations that keep workers safe – even when industry leaders, safety experts and workers raise the alarm,” the letter said.

Republicans have proposed to cut Osha’s budget by over 8% for fiscal year 2027. In 2025, Osha inspections dropped by 20% and the agency lost 223 full-time employees to buyouts and early retirements amid efforts to significantly cull the federal workforce during Trump’s second term.

Osha did not immediately respond to a request for comment.