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According to an EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) memo dated September 4, 2024, the EPA’s failure to timely report fraudulent activity by a business entity resulted in the U.S. Attorney’s Office declining to pursue criminal charges against the business owner. “In early 2024, the EPA OIG and partner law enforcement agencies presented information to […]
Last month, the EPA demonstrated that stopping the installation of aftermarket defeat devices for vehicles and engines remains a top enforcement priority. These defeat devices are “aftermarket parts or software, such as modified exhausts or chip tuning products and services, that inhibit or bypass a vehicle’s emissions controls,” according to MotorTrend. On June 4, 2024, […]
The recent report “How the EPA’s lax regulation of dangerous pesticides is hurting public health and the US economy” by the Brookings Institution highlights ways the EPA is lagging behind the rest of the world in regulating pesticides to protect human and wildlife health. The report lists approximately 85 agricultural pesticides that are still approved […]
New Mexico is known as the “Land of Enchantment,” but it is also a state without a lot of bodies of water. When the Trump administration changed the “navigable waters” definition to include only waters that flowed year-round, both New Mexico and Arizona were particularly hard hit, as the majority of their waterways don’t have […]
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s transition team announced Michael S. Regan as the administration’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of Biden’s aggressive climate change plan.
It has been 3 years since the ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Texas, killed 15 people, injured hundreds, and caused widespread damage. Just a few months after that event, President Obama’s Executive Order (EO) 13650 set into motion actions by numerous government agencies designed to enhance the safety and security of chemical facilities and reduce […]
It would be reasonable to think that when hazardous waste is produced that there is only one hazardous waste generator, given the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) definition, which states that “Generator means any person, by site, whose act or process produces hazardous waste identified or listed in [40 CFR 261] or whose act first […]
Yesterday we reviewed the status of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed reporting requirements for nanomaterials and the Agency’s recent approval of a pesticide containing nanosilver. Today we will look at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) recent research concerning how nanomaterials affect worker safety and health.
As EHS professionals, we have heard a lot of talk about nanomaterials and their possible effects on the environment. But what about worker safety? Today we will review the status of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed reporting requirements for nanomaterials and the Agency’s recent approval of a pesticide containing nanosilver. Tomorrow we will […]
When a worker believes that his employer is breaking federal law, he or she may “blow the whistle” by reporting the employer to regulators, who then open an investigation. Unscrupulous employers may retaliate against whistleblowers by denying them raises, bonuses, or promotions; demoting them; making their lives at work so miserable that they quit; or […]