Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
In 2018, it’s becoming imperative that every employer develop a comprehensive and effective workplace violence action plan, especially because the average workplace is now 18 times more likely to experience an incident of workplace violence than a fire, and active shooters are becoming more likely.
Why the fuss about bacteria and booze? Well, there’s a potentially serious EHS concern blossoming for healthcare facilities as certain forms of bacteria are becoming more tolerant of the alcohol used in popular hand sanitizers.
It’s one of the most instantly recognizable hazards when you step onto many worksites—noise. A lot of us tend to think, well, just use some PPE, and that’s that. However, there’s much more to a hearing conservation program than meets the eye, or, shall we say, meets the ear. What are some of the things […]
Q: Does the “cleanup” of diesel fuel and hydraulic fluid spills consisting of small amounts (about 500 lbs with about 3 gal of liquid) of soil and absorbents need to be handled as a special or hazardous waste?
OSHA reports that Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs is one of its most popular guidance publications. The agency originally published this document in 1988 and issued the first update in October 2016. In that revision, OSHA stated that much had changed over the preceding 28 years in the nature of work, conditions in […]
Today, companies across the globe are focusing in on Sustainability and Operational Excellence, which has led to a renewed interest in the work that Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) professionals are responsible for. For years, EHS has been seen as the cost of doing business, but now companies are seeing the value their EHS teams […]
From an employee’s acceptance of a job through the prehire process and into day 1 at the organization, your company’s onboarding practices set the tone for the success—or failure—to come. Is your onboarding program boosting your safety culture, or is it hindering it? Read on for some safety culture onboarding best practices in a Q&A […]
Worker safety advocates, scientists, and some state OSHA authorities have been contending for years that OSHA’s permissible exposure levels (PELs) for lead in the workplace are inadequate to protect workers from the multiple adverse health effects associated with the metal.
Explosions and fires at oil refineries and chemical facilities are far more likely to occur during equipment start-ups and shutdowns, notes the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) in a recent Safety Digest. Workers are typically the first line of victims when such incidents occur. In the Digest, the CSB describes three start-up/shutdown […]
We all know that protecting employees from safety and environmental hazards is just the right thing to do, but business needs cannot be ignored. Going beyond compliance, how can an EHS manager demonstrate to business stakeholders the return on investment of their efforts—or, to put it another way, what is the return on safety in […]