Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Whenever you put workers in an air-purifying respirator, it’s vital to know when they need to change their cartridges. Until passive visual end-of-service-life indicators become standard—something that has been a long time coming—employers must calculate, based on employee exposures and workplace factors, just how long a cartridge remains useful. There are a number of computer-based […]
Laboratory workers may know that they need to be careful about the chemical and biological hazards they work with, but do they know that the tools they use to work with these substances can also put them at risk of injury? Here’s what you can do to protect workers from the physical and safety hazards […]
Laboratories are dangerous places, and university laboratories have proved deadly with disturbing regularity in recent years. In 2008, for example, a lab research assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles, was killed in a flash fire. In January 2010, an explosion at Texas Tech University cost a graduate student three fingers and caused severe […]
Recently, one of our subscribers asked the following question: We have numerous tanks on site (mostly <2,500 gallons) that are used in food manufacturing. They are round with a manhole access. We also receive deliveries of milk in tanker trucks. Employees are required to visually inspect the tanks and tankers for cleanliness after the cleaning […]
Truckers and their employers will be interested in some new and possibly surprising safety data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Get the latest here.
Recently, one of our subscribers asked the following questions: Is a confined space on a permanently moored casino vessel adjacent to a land-based hotel covered under OSHA’s more restrictive general industry rule or under the maritime rules? Since the general industry standards are more restrictive than the maritime standards, if the vessel does fall under […]
With more than 650,000 employers and 6-million-plus employees, construction is a solid pillar of the U.S. economy. According to the Associated General Contractors, the building industry creates nearly $1 trillion worth of structures each year.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has long had enforcement guidance in place enabling it to enter into settlements that affect the operations of an entire corporation, rather than just a single facility. But these were mutually negotiated agreements; they were not something OSHA considered itself statutorily empowered to impose and enforce. That may […]
Generally, when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspects an employer’s facility in one location, it issues citations and abatement requirements that apply only to that location. OSHA does not habitually attempt to issue citations and require abatement at facilities in other locations that are affiliated with the same employer—even in cases where repeat […]
How do you best conduct an environmental and safety management system (ESMS)? BLR’s webinar, Environmental and Safety Management System Excellence: How to Engage, Involve, and Exchange Information, explains how to exchange and demonstrate environmental and safety values through an effective environmental and safety management system within your company.