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Federal OSHA does not require employers to record injuries that only require first aid on OSHA injury and illness forms (OSHA Form 300 and 301 Incident Reports). At most workplaces, injuries or illnesses requiring only first aid are commonplace.
Is an ounce of prevention really more effective than a pound of cure? According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), that’s certainly the case for Arboris®, LLC, a food additive manufacturing facility in Newark, Ohio. A 900-gallon melt tank at the facility containing hexane and ethanol overpressurized and exploded in December 2015. […]
What happens if there’s a chemical leak or spill in your workplace? Are your workers ready to contain it? Workers at Nestlé’s Willy Wonka candy manufacturing plant in Itasca, Illinois were quick to react to a lithium chloride spill, containing the 5-gallon mishap. Unfortunately, containing the spilled liquid didn’t eliminate the hazard to workers—just a […]
The EPA has simultaneously issued new rules governing gas emissions from both existing and new, modified, or reconstructed municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. Gas emitted by MSW landfills comprises methane, carbon dioxide (CO2), and nonmethane organic compounds (NMOCs). Both final rules define affected MSW landfills as those with design capacities of 2.5 million metric tons […]
House Republicans have had enough of the Chevron Deference—a 30-year-old doctrine that gives U.S. executive branch agencies considerable latitude to take “reasonable” regulatory actions that have an ambiguous foundation in U.S. law. In a July 12, 2016 vote, the House passed the Separation of Powers Restoration Act of 2016 (H.R. 4768). The bill would amend […]
Q. The wrong feedstock was placed in Tank A which holds a different one. The resulting mixed ignitable material (D001) is not usable. We intend to move this mixture out of Tank A quickly. Is Tank A subject to RCRA, or is it still a product tank?
Thinking about trading impermeable parking lot pavement for green space with planters or bioswales? Low-impact development (LID) can be a lucrative option for new development, urban retrofitting, and redevelopment projects wanting to invest in LID as a stormwater management tool. Sure, saving money while simultaneously managing stormwater sounds ideal, but is it?
The Cape Wind Project (Project), now midway through its second decade of planning without a single turbine standing, encountered another hurdle when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a multipart decision that agreed with two out of three claims environmental groups have made against the Project. Importantly, the court said the […]
What’s your worst-case scenario? Fire? Explosion? Flood? If you’re just thinking of the disaster itself, you’re not thinking broadly enough: the true worst-case scenario is a disaster for which your facility and your workers are completely unprepared.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) premier chemical right-to-know reporting regulation is about to catch up its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) counterpart.