Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Say you have fallen out of compliance with an environmental or safety regulation. You’re familiar with the penalties and are willing to pay—but it doesn’t stop there. As an environment, health, and safety (EHS) professional, you are going to have to explain what costs so much. Today we will examine the true costs of environmental […]
According to a recent meta-analysis from Gallup, an organization with strong employee engagement has 70% fewer accidents than a workplace where workers are unengaged. Yesterday, we looked at six ways to promote employee engagement by encouraging workers’ commitment to quality, and also letting them know that their jobs are important. Today, we’ll look at the […]
Employers have long known that a workplace’s “safety culture” has an impact on accident rates. A strong safety culture enhances safety; a weak one breeds accidents. But “safety culture” is not isolated from the overall workplace culture—rather, it is part of it and is impacted by it. A recent meta-analysis by Gallup, Inc., has found […]
We thought we were on top of matters when it came to heat illness prevention—in particular, we thought we knew how to recognize the most serious type of heat illness, heatstroke. And then the Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred, and thousands of workers were cleaning up the mess in the heat of a Gulf shore summer—and […]
Yesterday we looked at the case of an agency providing care for the developmentally disabled that was cited for a General Duty Clause violation because of ongoing, unresolved workplace violence issues. Such issues are common in many workplaces—but for one New Jersey employer, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) determined that its failure to […]
Sometimes the workers who care the most are at the highest risk. Violent injuries to workers in mental health facilities, assisted-living facilities, home health care, and other caring professions are often so commonplace that workers come to accept them as “part of the job.” But the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is less accepting, […]
Here’s a possible new task for environmental health and safety (EHS) managers nationwide. How healthy is your facility? There is a scorecard coming that will rate the “health” of your building and the effect on your workers. Does healthy facility = healthy workers? Why should you care as an EHS manager? Let’s take a look.
The city of Los Angeles recently passed an ordinance that could become a model for environmental justice land-use restrictions nationwide. Let’s take a look at a few aspects of the ordinance and how it could affect the compliance efforts of facilities caught in the thick of such local rules.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is becoming more aggressive in its efforts to get people involved in environmental justice (EJ) efforts in their communities. And some communities are jumping on the bandwagon. Two recent initiatives, EPA’s draft EJ agenda for 2020 and a new Los Angeles ordinance, highlight the growing prominence of EJ concerns. […]
The most talked-about changes to OSHA’s new recordkeeping standard are its data submission requirement and OSHA’s intent to publish that data in a searchable online database. However, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also revised the requirements in the rule that affect workers’ right to report work-related injuries and illnesses, and employers’ responsibility to […]