The Who, What, and When of Release Notifications
A spill or release of a chemical just occurred at your facility. What do you do? Does it need to be reported? What information needs to be reported, to whom, and how soon?
Category: Chemicals
Today’s workplace uses thousands of chemicals, many of which are hazardous. The resources in this section will help guide you in the safe and legal identification, storage, transport, and use of these chemicals, and in making sure that your employees right to know how to be safe around such substances is provided, as required by law.
Workers Exposed to Chemicals, Employers Exposed to Fines: Three Recent Cases (Cont.)
When you think about chemical safety and compliance, the first standard that comes to mind might be the hazard communication standard. However, there are a lot of standards that apply to hazardous chemical safety. Yesterday, we looked at two employers that failed to comply with Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, personal protective equipment, and […]
Workers Exposed to Chemicals, Employers Exposed to Fines: Three Recent Cases
There are many chemicals in use in modern workplaces—and there are a lot of ways workers can be exposed to them. Three employers that were cited within a 1-month period earlier this year provide instructive examples of the kinds of mistakes that lead to overexposures.
1-Bromopropane Coming at You from All Sides
It’s time for environment, health, and safety managers to start tracking another chemical. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has added 1-bromopropane (1-BP) to the list of chemicals required to be reported in toxic release inventory (TRI) reports. In addition, the Agency recently released a draft risk assessment for 1-BP. On top of that, the […]
EPA Releases Proposed Changes to the Cost of RMP
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its proposed amendments to the Chemical Accidental Release Prevention Program, aka the Risk Management Program. Concurrently, the Agency also released a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA). Yesterday we reviewed EPA’s estimated costs for changes concerning third-party audits, root cost analyses, and safer technology and alternative analyses. Today we […]
How Much You Say? What EPA Claims Changes to RMP Will Cost
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its proposed amendments to the Chemical Accidental Release Prevention Program, aka the Risk Management Program. Concurrently, the Agency also released a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA). Today and tomorrow, we will explore how much the EPA says the major changes will cost. After comments flow into the Agency, […]
EPA Proposes Mitigation Measures for Lethal Pesticide
The EPA is proposing mitigation measures to minimize human health incidents associated with paraquat dichloride.
SPCC Secondary Containment
Q. Is secondary containment necessary for storage containers under 55 gallons (i.e. 5 gallon buckets)?
Clear the Smoke about Women, Cigarettes, and the Workplace
Employers have long been concerned about how smoking affects the workplace in terms of overall health and healthcare costs, the synergistic effects of smoking and workplace exposures, and fire safety. Recently, those concerns have been expanded to include vaping—which, as it turns out, is not really any safer for workers than cigarette smoking. And, just […]
SDS Requirements
Q. Can you provide some guidance on how to satisfy the requirements of the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) information without revealing the names or Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) numbers of the chemicals we use in our mixtures?