Cotton dust was first regulated in the U.S. in 1969 under the Walsh-Healy Act for government contractors. This standard (1 mg/m3) was adopted as an established Federal standard in May 1971 by OSHA. In December of 1974, OSHA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking for occupational exposure to cotton dust. This officially started the long and protracted regulatory and legal proceedings for a detail substance specific cotton dust standard. OSHA published two new cotton dust standards in 1978: one for ginning and one for "general industry" covering all other cotton processing and handling sectors. Court and administrative actions invalidated or stayed the 1978 standard for most sectors except textile manufacturing and weaving. Court actions and other considerations caused OSHA to reevaluate the standards in 1981-82; and in June 1983, a new revised standard was proposed. On December 13, 1985 OSHA published the final revised standard.

The final revised standard covers, under the 1978 standard (29 CFR 1910.1043), yarn manufacturing (200 ug/m3), slashing and weaving (750 ug/m3) and waste houses for textile operations (500 ug/m3); and under the old 1971 standard (29 CFR 191CA000; Table Z-1) only the non-textile operations of waste recycling and garnetting. There are requirements for engineering control work practices, medical surveillance, recordkeeping, respirators, monitoring, and employee education and training; and the definition of washed cotton and cotton dust are clarified.