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.
2013 TRI National Analysis—Pollution Prevention and Waste Management One of the biggest challenges for anyone that produces toxic chemical wastes is to find ways to minimize disposal. The generally followed hierarchy of choices begins with source reduction, and moves down to recycling, then energy recovery, treatment, and finally, disposal or other releases. During the past […]
The phaseout of incandescent lightbulbs has led to an increase in the use of energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, including compact fluorescent lightbulbs or lamps (CFLs). Traditional long-tube fluorescent bulbs and the compact variety contain mercury vapor and may have small amounts of liquid mercury, both of which can be released when the bulbs are broken or […]
Nano-scale materials have different physical and chemical properties than the same materials in larger sizes. So the methods you would use to protect workers against those materials in larger sizes won’t always work for nanomaterial exposures. In fact, in some cases, you may need to protect workers against materials that pose no hazard in larger […]
If you’ve ever had a cold, you know that terrible misery can come in microscopic packages. What you may not realize is that infectious biological agents like influenza and the cold virus are not the only extremely tiny hazards workers may face. Particles that fall into the “billionths of a meter” size—nanomaterials—may also be affecting […]
On August 6, 2012, a fire at a refinery in California shut down the facility for months and sent more than 15,000 nearby residents to local hospitals with breathing problems. The fire occurred when a 52-inch section of pipe leading from a crude oil distillation tower began leaking flammable hydrocarbons that formed a vapor cloud […]
On November 15, 2014, workers at a pesticide plant in Texas were trying to restart the methomyl production line after a 5-day shutdown. They were having problems: A line was plugged and the building ventilation wasn’t working properly. Around 4 a.m., workers opened a drain valve in the vent system to release pressure, without realizing […]
Landlord to Clean Up Act and Sites Impacted by Lead–Based Paint In a joint announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, a settlement was reached with a Cincinnati property manager for failure to inform tenants that […]
New Voluntary Manufacturers Program to Control Pesticide Drift Pesticides that drift onto neighboring properties increase risk of exposure for human populations in schools, homes, and adjacent fields and can negatively impact water, the environment, and wildlife. Even as the EPA is more strictly regulating pesticides and farmworkers, the reality of pesticide drift or volatilization has […]
2014 TSCA Work Plan Assessment Update—How It Works In the beginning, back in 2012, the EPA first used several sources to identify chemicals meeting prioritization factor criteria as potential candidates for review, a process that initially identified 1,235 chemicals. Next, the chemicals were screened to determine if any chemicals should be excluded due to other […]
2014 TSCA Work Plan Assessment Update—The Chemicals As noted yesterday, Action Plan chemicals are the most important identified by the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments, and in 2014, the following chemicals and chemical groups were added: Bisphenol A (BPA)—Ranked high for hazard and exposure; Decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE)—Ranked high for hazard, exposure, and persistence/bioaccumulation; Hexabromocyclododecane […]