Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
You may have wondered why OSHA and OSHA-authorized states refer to occurrences in which workers are injured or killed as incidents, not accidents. The main reason is that, by the dictionary definition, an accident is an “unexpected or unforeseen” incident that usually results in injury or damage. To take an extreme example, an airplane that […]
In September 2017, the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) and the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) kicked off a work group to find ways “to improve the state-federal relationship in the context of compliance assurance.”
In a recent press release, OSHA urges emergency crews in the areas affected by Hurricane Florence to be aware of hazards from flooding, power loss, structural damage, fallen trees, and storm debris. The release also provides helpful reminders and resources for affected employers and their workers.
Question: I understand that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) hazardous material regulations do not require a Class 9 placard for domestic transportation of either non-bulk or bulk shipments but that some shippers decide to attach a placard to their Class 9 domestic hazmat shipment with the applicable UN number even when the placard is not […]
Late last week, a series of explosions across several towns in Massachusetts resulted in one fatality and several injuries. The incident, its aftermath, and the resulting investigations and lawsuits are a reminder of the costliness of failing to conduct proper maintenance and monitoring of equipment to ensure its safe operation and performance.
As the Supreme Court directed in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense, challenges to the EPA’s Clean Water Rule or waters of the United States (WOTUS) (June 26, 2015, Federal Register (FR)) must be filed in federal district courts rather than in courts of appeal. This has set the stage for dueling opinions […]
Because health and safety tend to operate alongside the hierarchical management structure of an organization (a situation sometimes conceptualized as an “information silo,” suggesting a degree of isolation), safety professionals may not think of themselves as leaders. But that doesn’t mean that safety professionals can’t implement the same leadership practices that company managers use to […]
The online platform economy is an exploding phenomenon, which means the number of people performing work through the platform is also growing at an extraordinary rate. It is also clear that workers in the online platform economy are rarely protected by regulation, and therefore, the hazards to which they are exposed are often more severe […]
OSHA has many worker protection standards, and it is not uncommon to find two or more standards addressing the same hazards in different ways. In such cases, which standard must an employer comply with?
Employers have through September 28 to submit comments on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) proposal to amend its controversial Obama-era e-recordkeeping rule.