Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
An Ohio man recently suffered a relatively minor, yet highly unusual injury—his phone caught fire in his rear pants pocket. While this incident is no cause for widespread alarm, you may want to share the story with employees to perhaps dissuade them from sitting on their phones.
In 2012, OSHA completed a comprehensive revision of its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) with the general objective of achieving alignment with the United Nations’ (U.N.) 2009 Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). The revision provided much needed improvements in how information about hazardous chemicals in the workplace is communicated to employees, […]
The EPA recently issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking ((ANPR), December 26, 2018, Federal Register (FR)) discussing potential changes to regulations governing the management of liquids in municipal solid waste landfills (MSWLFs).
In a letter, Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) asked the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to resist any action by the EPA to withdraw or otherwise diminish its 2012 Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
As thousands enter the workforce, there were 43 fewer workplace fatalities in 2017 than the previous year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2017 (CFOI) report. The fatal injury rate also decreased from 3.6% in 2016 to 3.5% in 2017.
The Trump administration’s new Federal Action Plan to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposures and Associated Health Impacts comprises four goals that will be pursued by many of the 17 federal agencies that make up the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children, which was formed in 1997 by Executive Order.
The world’s nations took another step toward addressing the perils of climate change at the latest Conference of the Parties (COP24), which concluded December 15, 2018, in Katowice, Poland. The most important product of COP24 appears to be a “rulebook” that will govern the implementation of the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. Under the Paris agreement, […]
Public comment on the EPA’s proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule closed October 30, 2018, and, as expected, the thousands of responses highlighted the radically diverse opinions on coal-fired energy and climate change held by Americans and industry stakeholders. The ACE proposal (August 31, 2018, Federal Register (FR)) comprised revisions of three existing regulations contained […]
The EPA’s implementation of Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I), also known as the Good Neighbor Provision, has been a source of conflict among the Agency, the states, industry stakeholders, and public health and environmental interest groups. That trend is continuing with the Agency’s latest action, a final rule that establishes that 20 eastern states […]
An apparent attempt by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to reverse its previous findings about the potentially detrimental impacts of a proposed 600-mile natural pipeline crossing two national forests as well as the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (ANST) was in violation of multiple federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), concluded a panel […]