Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
On March 24, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez announced a long-awaited final rule to improve protections for workers exposed to respirable silica dust. The rule is expected to save more than 600 lives annually and to prevent more than 900 cases of silicosis.
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.
Yesterday, we looked at how the 3M® Abrasive Systems Division in Alexandria, Virginia, took a closer look at its hearing conservation program to better characterize worker exposures. It was a first step in reclassifying the “hearing conservation areas” in the plant so that only workers who had actual hazardous exposures would be subject to annual […]
The 629-page proposal the EPA/National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published (July 13, 2015, Federal Register (FR)) to set Phase II GHG emissions and fuel-efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty engines and vehicles contained a few short paragraphs from the EPA that caused a major uproar in the auto racing community.
Q. We store Lead Metal Scrap on our property and sell it to recyclers. Would I mark Item 12 “Notification of Hazardous Secondary Material Activity” on the 2015 biennial report as “Yes” or as “No”?
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) has assembled an illuminating summary of state reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay of the Clean Power Plan (CPP). The stay recognizes the strength of judicial challenges to the rule and allows those challenges to proceed through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and […]
Spring is here. As the ground thaws and the rainy spring season begins, owners of underground storage tanks (USTs) must take certain precautions to prevent tank systems from emerging from belowground and floating away.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has announced the winners of its Safe-in-Sound Excellence and Innovation in Hearing Loss Prevention Awards for 2016. The purpose of the Safe-in-Sound Awards is to identify and honor excellent, real-world examples of noise control and other hearing loss prevention practices and innovations. One of this year’s winners, […]
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 […]
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 […]