Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
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.
The behavior of many common chemicals is, by now, predictable in most circumstances. But when a very common substance (for example, carbon) is broken down into individual molecules and rebuilt into an extremely tiny structure (for example, a tube of carbon “rings”), its chemical behavior is entirely differently from the same substance in a larger […]
On December 22, 2016, The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (AFBF/NASDA) petitioned the EPA to delay by 1 year the January 1, 2017, compliance date for the Agency’s revised standards to improve protections for farm workers who apply or otherwise handle or are exposed to pesticides (Worker […]
The EPA has taken final action to remove 72 entries from the list of inert ingredients approved for use in pesticide products. Inert ingredients on this list do not need further approval before inclusion in a pesticide formulation for a nonfood use.
Have you enjoyed a tasty cup of flavored coffee or delicious hot buttery popcorn lately? That rich flavor probably came from an extracted and concentrated form of one or more naturally occurring chemical substances—substances that, in their pure chemical form, have the very chemical-sounding names of diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione.
The EPA is proposing to use its authority under Section 6(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to prohibit several uses of trichloroethylene (TCE), a volatile organic compound, to eliminate exposures to workers, consumers, and the general population, which, the Agency says, result in significant cancer and noncancer health risks. The proposal would specifically […]
Obama EPA’s most consequential actions to prevent accidents at facilities with hazardous chemicals have been written out in the Agency’s just released final amendments to regulations implementing Clean Air Act (CAA) section 112(r), more commonly called the Risk Management Program (RMP).
On December 21, 2016, EPA finalized revisions to the Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions under 40 CFR 68, also known as the Risk Management Program (RMP). The revisions, which were proposed back in March 2016, are intended to improve elements of the RMP, enhance emergency preparedness, and ensure that local emergency response officials and the public […]
Recently, a subscriber asked the following question: Where can I find the OSHA requirements for backup SDS documents?
Disputes about environmental preemption usually make news in the context of disagreements over federal versus state statutory and constitutional authority. (Note that preservation of state power was probably the major final obstacle holding up Congressional passage of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which reformed the federal Toxic Substances Control […]
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has officially made a recommendation to limit the exposure of workers to flavoring compounds. Yesterday we reviewed the recommended exposure limit (REL) and who’s affected. Today we offer tips for controlling worker exposure to these compounds at your facility.