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.
Employees in the meatpacking industry are exposed to a number of different health and safety hazards on a regular basis. According to OSHA, these hazards include exposure to high noise levels, dangerous equipment, slippery floors, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), and hazardous chemicals. Workers also face biological hazards from handling live animals or exposures to blood or feces […]
On August 26, 2022, the EPA proposed to designate perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), including their salts and structural isomers, as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as “Superfund.” These substances are two of the most widely used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are […]
In recent weeks, the EPA has made two announcements about new chemicals added to its Safer Chemicals Ingredients List (SCIL). The SCIL is a “living list of chemicals by functional-use class that EPA’s Safer Choice program has evaluated and determined meet the Safer Choice Standard.” Products containing chemicals on the SCIL are the gold standard […]
In July 2022, the EPA finalized amendments to its requirements for Significant New Use Rules (SNURs) to better protect the health of workers. One of the uses of SNURs is to require notice to the EPA before chemical substances and mixtures are used in new ways that might create health concerns. These amendments strengthen requirements […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is weighing changes to its process safety management (PSM) standard, including expanding it to include oil- and gas-well drilling and servicing, according to the agency’s August 30 announcement of an informal stakeholder meeting (87 Federal Register (FR) 53020). The PSM standard, which requires employers to implement safety programs […]
In August 2022, the EPA issued a proposed rule to add a Di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) category to the list of toxic chemicals subject to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA). DINP is commonly found in toys, fabric coatings, and […]
Compiling, analyzing, and reporting environmental, health, and safety (EHS) data can be labor-intensive, time-consuming, and exhausting even for the most seasoned EHS leaders. EHS professionals are usually inundated with complex tasks such as tracking and managing hundreds of chemicals across multiple facilities and states in an effort to submit EPCRA compliance reports accurately and on […]
It’s important to properly clean, disinfect, and sanitize to make buildings healthy. There is some confusion among the three terms, but it’s important to focus on cleaning and disinfecting unless your facility or local, state, or federal law requires sanitization. Here’s what you need to know about cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing. Check out our Back […]
Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine the difference between cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing. It’s important to properly clean, disinfect, and sanitize to make buildings healthy. There is some confusion among the three terms, but it’s important to […]
On July 20, 2022, the EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report critical of EPA management practices, entitled “The EPA Needs to Improve the Transparency of Its Cancer-Assessment Process for Pesticides.” The controversy uncovered by the report centers around the use of 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) pesticide. The report concludes the Trump Administration EPA did […]