Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Summer is in full swing throughout the United States. The familiar growl of mowers and lawn tractors, the howl of leaf blowers, and the whiz of string trimmers echo through the land. If you have employees who are busy taking care of your lawn and landscaping, make sure they know what hazards they face and […]
In 1989, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Program recommended observing July 11 as World Population Day. The reason given was to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues in the context of overall development plans and programs and the need to find solutions for these issues. The world population […]
Are you ready for the new safety data sheets (SDS)? Writing for Safety.BLR.com®, Safety Editor Emily Clark has everything you need to know about the recently passed deadline and its implications. June 1, 2015, marked an important deadline in the 4-year phase-in period for OSHA’s revisions to its hazard communication standard. Effective that date, chemical […]
Protecting workers from the heat is a critical issue during the hot months of July and August—so critical that OSHA is ramping up its awareness and enforcement efforts around heat illness prevention this year. Ideally, employers are supposed to prevent workers from suffering heat illness in the first place, but what happens after a worker […]
Working outdoors in the heat is extra stressful. There’s the stress from whatever work you’re doing, and then there’s the stress on your body created by the need to shed heat. Your workers may know they need to protect themselves. But some of what they’ve heard about preventing heat illness, identifying heat illness, and treating […]
Although drowning is primarily an off-the-job hazard, workers are sometimes at risk on the job as well. Here are some common hazards employers should be aware of in order to prevent drownings. One thing employers may not realize is that workers who are not supposed to be in the water at all could be at […]
A refrigerant formulator was recently fined $300,000 by the EPA and the Department of Justice for violations of SNAP regulations. First, let’s look at what the pertinent regulations say, then at what the company allegedly did, and finally what the fix will be. Note: Under SNAP, a “producer” is any person who manufactures, formulates, or […]
In warm weather, increasing numbers of divers suit up to perform underwater operations. Diving has its own set of hazards and safety rules, but employers who utilize divers need to be aware that other hazards may exist besides those inherent in the diving operation itself. That’s what Liquivision Technology found out when the employer contracted […]
Many refrigerants have been determined to be ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and have been targeted for phaseout under the Montreal Protocol. Chemicals used in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning industrial sector is one group for which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reviewed and identified substitutes under the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) Significant New Alternatives Policy […]
Fireworks injuries are on the rise, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In 2013, injuries hit a 10-year high, with eight deaths and an estimated 11,400 consumers who sustained injuries related to fireworks. Most of the injuries were caused by device malfunction and improper use. Warn your workers this Fourth of July […]