Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Spring has sprung, so your employees may be dusting off the winter cobwebs and tackling strenuous home tasks, such as spring cleaning and gardening. In today’s Advisor, we give guidance on conducting effective training for off-the-job safety. Would it surprise you to know that fewer workers are injured or killed at work than away from […]
Organizations with strong safety cultures tend to experience low levels of risky behavior and low accident rates, turnover, and absenteeism as well as high productivity. To strengthen your safety culture, here’s a list of suggestions: Give away ownership. In the strongest safety cultures, everyone feels responsible for safety. A worker who notices another worker without […]
In February 2014 alone, the EPA announced enforcement actions against 37 contractors and training providers nationwide for failure to comply with requirements of the Lead-Based Paint RRP Rule. The RRP Rule requires that contractors that work on pre-1978 dwellings and child-occupied facilities be trained and certified to use lead-safe work practices. In February 2014 alone, […]
Does your safety management program meet all of the following criteria? It should.
Even as more colleges and universities add “sustainable” degree programs, they are also seeing the light when it comes to their own waste management practices. One of these is American University (AU), in Washington D.C., where the zero waste mantra became a fight song in 2010 when the school adopted a 100% Zero Waste Policy. […]
Yesterday, we outlined the steps in the process of transitioning to safer chemicals. Today, we review reasons why using safer chemicals whenever possible is a good idea. American workers use tens of thousands of chemicals every day. While many of these chemicals are suspected of being harmful, only a small number are regulated in the […]
When companies decide to reduce their wastes and become more sustainable, they often find the task requires critical thinking and novel approaches to how they do business, no matter what that business is. But the rewards can be great not only in cost savings but also in how they are perceived by a very discriminating […]
The most effective way to control hazardous chemical exposures in the workplace is to eliminate them, but it can be difficult to identify safer alternatives. OSHA has created a toolkit to identify safer chemicals you can use in place of more hazardous ones. The toolkit walks employers and workers through information, methods, tools, and guidance […]
What defines “green power”? According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Green Power Partnership, “green power” is electricity that provides the highest environmental benefit and is produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Green power suppliers produce no fossil-fuel emissions and must have been built within the past 15 […]
Hardly a month goes by without the EPA publishing enforcement actions against companies and individuals that have run afoul of the many regulations related to asbestos. Although most involve violations related to lack of training, lack of public notification, and other abatement-specific failures, many also cite violations of regulations protecting air and water. The Clean […]