EU Seeks Protection from Cancer-Causing Chemicals
The European Union (EU) Commission has issued a proposal to limit exposure to 13 chemical agents. Find out what’s involved and how the issue affects global businesses.
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Report Finds Rampant Risks for NYC Garbage Workers
It’s common knowledge that working with garbage is difficult and smelly. But a new report reveals that commercial waste work is among New York City’s most dangerous jobs.
OSHA Launches Pilot Program for Whistleblower Severe Violators
Recently, OSHA announced that it is launching a pilot program aimed at employers who “continually and willfully” disregard the right of whistleblowers. Called the Whistleblower Severe Violator Enforcement Program or W-SVEP, the program will be similar to the existing Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which includes employers that routinely ignore safety and health regulations. The pilot […]
Electronic Recordkeeping: Compliance Is Just a Few Clicks Away
Many employers with more than 10 employees have always been required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to keep injury and illness records. However, they were not required to submit those records to OSHA, unless OSHA sent them an annual survey form. Besides OSHA’s annual survey, employers only had to produce those records […]
Supercritical CO2: Employer Draws HAZMAT Citations for Nontoxic, Nonflammable Chemical
Following the death of 53-year-old Steven Reyna in a carbon dioxide (CO2) release at Atlantic Coffee Industrial Solutions in Houston, Texas, OSHA issued nine serious citations against the facility. How exactly did the employer fail to protect its worker from the hazards of a nontoxic, noncorrosive, nonflammable chemical?
Proposal Updates NPDES Provisions
The EPA has issued a proposal to update provisions under 15 headings in its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. The proposal results in part from an ongoing directive from the White House instructing federal agencies to conduct periodic reviews of regulations to eliminate outdated requirements and reduce the compliance burden on the regulated […]
SPCC: Trucking Terminal
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 […]
Do Not Help with the CPP, AGs Tell EPA
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 […]
Accumulating Universal Waste: The One-Year Factor
“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 […]
Supercritical CO2: The Green Solution That Created a Deadly Hazard
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 […]