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Webinar Wrap-Up: Navigating the Hazardous Waste Recycling Rules

In a recent webinar titled “Hazardous Waste Recycling: Uncover Cost-Effective and Legally Compliant Strategies for Your Organization’s Program,” speaker Philip Comella, Esq., head of the Environmental, Safety and Toxic Torts Group in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, voiced what many have suspected: that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste recycling […]

EPA Adds Three Categories of Nonwaste Fuels

In a final rule, the EPA has added three categories of non-hazardous secondary materials (NHSMs)—construction and demolition (C&D) wood, paper recycling residuals, and creosote-treated railroad ties—to the initial list of four categories it published in a 2013 rule. NHSMs in these seven categories can be burned in combustion units as nonwaste fuels without the owner […]

Flammable Substance Threshold

Q. Would the risk management plan (RMP) flammable substance exemption include warehouses? We will store cans of foam containing isobutane. Will the RMP regulations apply?

Clean Power Plan Stayed by Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition from 29 states and state agencies seeking to stay EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) while challenges to the plan progress through the federal courts. The practical effect of the Court’s order is that the first deadline of June 30, 2016, for states to submit their initial plans for […]

USTs: Inspections 101

Aging tanks, muddled inspections, and inadequate recordkeeping can increase the probability for underground storage tank (UST) spills and releases. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirms that more than 6,000 releases are discovered annually, and as of 2015, more than 525,000 total releases from USTs have occurred. UST owners and operators that fail to conduct […]

Records, or It Didn’t Happen! A Training Records Checkup

During an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection, the inspector will ask to see a lot of written materials, including any records you have of training that has been provided to employees. If you don’t have the records—or if something is missing—OSHA is likely to cite you not for missing records but for failing […]

There’s no Safety Data Sheet for These Six Chemical Exposures

Workers have been trained to rely on chemical labels and safety data sheets (SDSs) for chemical hazard information—and rightly so, most of the time. However, some chemical hazards don’t come neatly packaged and labeled. That doesn’t make them any less dangerous. Yesterday, we looked at the hazards of vehicle exhaust and flammable vapors. Here are […]

There’s no Safety Data Sheet for These Six Chemical Exposures

Most hazardous chemicals arrive in the workplace with personalized calling cards: the labels and safety data sheets (SDSs) required by law to accompany them. Unfortunately, not all chemicals are so accommodating. Some may slip into the workplace unannounced, unnoticed, and unrecognized. Beware of these chemical hazards that may have crept in under your nose! Exhaust […]

Tips for Avoiding OSHA Lockout/Tagout Citations

What gets employers into LOTO trouble with OSHA? Attorney Nickole Winnett, shareholder in the Washington, D.C., office of Jackson Lewis, points to a number of culprits, including failing to ensure that energy control procedures have been developed, documented, and are in use for each piece of equipment where servicing and maintenance occur.