Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine chemical hazard “worker right-to-know” compliance. Both communities and workers need to understand the chemical hazards they might encounter. Hazard communication, or “worker right-to-know,” is the workplace counterpart to community right-to-know. While […]
On May 2, the Department of Transportation (DOT) adopted a rule recognizing oral fluid drug testing as an alternative to urine testing for safety-sensitive positions in all regulated industries, including aviation, motor carrier, rail, and transit. The final rule (88 Fed. Reg. 27596) becomes effective June 1. The final rule harmonizes DOT and Federal Motor […]
The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) identified fiscal year 2021 management challenges for all of the DOT’s agencies, including the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The FMCSA’s challenges for the current fiscal year, which began October 1, include the changes in state funding for roadway safety due to impacts […]
Chemical substances can have an assortment of labels and placards as they move through commerce and eventually end up as waste products. The Departments of Labor (DOL) and Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have regulatory authority during various points of transport, storage, use, and disposal of hazardous substances. The National Fire Protection […]
The Department of Transportation (DOT) does not require employers to test employees in safety-sensitive positions for cannabidiol (CBD) use, the DOT’s Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance (ODAPC) announced February 18. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and other DOT agencies still require employers to test employees for marijuana use.
Following several stern tweets from President Donald Trump, the EPA and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) have put the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on notice that the voluntary framework the state reached with four major automakers “appears to be inconsistent with federal law.” The EPA/DOT letter urged CARB to disassociate itself from the […]
The Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) unveiled proposed changes to its rules covering drivers’ hours of service. The changes would provide greater flexibility for both long- and short-haul drivers.
Question: I understand that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) hazardous material regulations do not require a Class 9 placard for domestic transportation of either non-bulk or bulk shipments but that some shippers decide to attach a placard to their Class 9 domestic hazmat shipment with the applicable UN number even when the placard is not […]
In 1971, the EPA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a joint memorandum to clarify jurisdictional issues related to the regulation of facilities with the potential to discharge oil into the environment. Nearly 50 years later, there is still significant uncertainty about where one agency’s authority ends and the other’s begins.
To placard, or not to placard, that is the question. While it’s a general truth that each person who offers for transportation or transports any hazardous material must comply with applicable placarding requirements, fortunately there are many instances when placarding a shipment of hazardous materials is not required by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) […]