Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Does the project you are considering need a wetlands permit? There was a company in New England whose owner wanted to move to a defunct airport site located on Long Island Sound and build a state-of-the-art-facility. One of his employees was a state representative. Another was a member of the local wetlands commission. Did he […]
New research suggests that managers of U.S. companies trying to meet earnings expectations may be compromising the health and safety of workers to please investors.
Companies that have dedicated themselves to “getting to zero” acknowledge that perhaps not all accidents can be prevented—but committing to the attempt can still reduce accident and illness rates. Yesterday we looked at two essential elements of a company’s commitment to what is called, in Europe, “Zero Accident Vision” (ZAV). The four elements—commitment, communication, safety […]
Have you set a zero incident goal for your company? It’s an attractive idea—the notion that all accidents are preventable—and some studies have shown that companies that make such a commitment do reduce their lost-time incidents. A new study of 27 European companies in 7 different countries that have made a commitment to “zero accident […]
Environmental audits can be great tools to help assess compliance liabilities and provide a basis for minimizing liabilities by bringing to light areas of noncompliance. They can lead to implementation of corrective measures before federal or state inspectors and investigators visit a facility. However, conducting a comprehensive environmental audit can be a daunting task. On […]
Are contractors the weak link in your safety chain? If you don’t have an effective contractor safety management program, you may not even know. Your contractors could be bringing personnel onto your site who don’t have the training and certifications you would normally require. The contractor—or the contractor’s personnel—may have only a cursory understanding of […]
Are your contractor safety management practices putting you at risk? It’s possible. Contractor and temporary workers who are injured sometimes sue their host employer, seeking damages beyond workers’ compensation—and in some cases they have been successful. In addition, a contractor incident on your site can cause injury to your employees, or even if it doesn’t […]
By Adam Levesque, MBA, CSP Safety Management Consultant, MEMIC What types of chemicals or raw materials should you ensure receive adequate hazard controls prior to arriving at your facility? How would you respond if you were asked by senior leadership why employees were not protected adequately, why a hazard which caused an injury was not […]
Finding out about a hazard that almost turned into an incident is always concerning. But near-misses can have a valuable silver lining.
In 2015, the French National Assembly began debating whether to add “burnout”—characterized by workers who feel exhausted, discouraged, and disinterested in work—to its list of occupational diseases as a compensable occupational condition. On February 15, 2017, the National Assembly’s Committee on Social Affairs issued its (ahem) exhaustive report on the subject.