Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Q. Does a trucking terminal need an SPCC plan? A. Although the SPCC regulations are geared to non-transportation-related facilities, in the transportation sector, SPCC rules also apply to many terminals and maintenance facilities, depending on their location and the amount of oil stored on site. A trucking terminal is subject to the rule if it […]
The attorneys general (AGs) of West Virginia and Texas do not believe the EPA should provide assistance to the states with implementing the Clean Power Plan (CPP) while the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay of that rule is in effect. In a letter to Janet McCabe, EPA’s acting assistant administrator of Air and Radiation, West Virginia […]
“One year” is the operative time frame for managing universal wastes under the RCRA regulations at 40 CFR 273. All handlers of universal waste have one year to keep universal waste onsite. To prove that it meets this time limitation, the handler must be able to demonstrate the number of days the universal waste has […]
At Atlantic Coffee Industrial Solutions in Houston, Texas, workers used an environmentally-friendly supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) process to extract caffeine from coffee beans. Unfortunately, “environmentally friendly” is not the same as “safe”— as the company found out on November 12, 2015, when a CO2 leak led to the asphyxiation death of 53-year-old Steven Reyna, a […]
The Senate voted to pass a bill to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Bill. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature in order to become law. It’s the first time the Act has been amended in 40 years.
Ah, the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)! For many facilities, the deadline to submit the annual report for 2015 is just a couple of weeks away—July 1. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sits on this enormous pile of data and is finding new and inventive ways of using the information. Will the Agency’s most recent […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently updated its guidance concerning the process safety management (PSM) recommended and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP) letter of interpretation. Yesterday we reviewed the general provisions of the guidance. Today we will take a look at what OSHA has to say about using internal standards as RAGAGEP.
Do your workers know what to do if an “active shooter” situation goes down in the workplace? The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines these unpredictable, terrifying situations as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.” They can devastate your workplace—but you can help […]
A national home decor retail chain is facing fines of $101,420 after OSHA inspectors found blocked exits and unsafe storage practices at a Wisconsin location. The location was inspected in November 2015 in response to an employee complaint. OSHA investigators cited the company for five repeat violations, two serious violations, and one other-than-serious violation.
A rotating airlock blade severed a 30-year-old worker’s three fingertips as he cleaned the machine at a Wisconsin organic food manufacturing facility, an incident federal safety investigators found could have been prevented if the machine had been powered down fully. OSHA cited the company for the same violation in 2012.