Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, an upcoming case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) this fall, is being closely watched because its decision is expected to determine whether the Chevron defense will reach its 40th birthday in 2024 or whether the precedent will fade away. The Chevron defense sets a legal […]
On September 22, 2023, the EPA proposed to strengthen a 2020 Clean Air Act (CAA) rule by ensuring industrial facilities that emit large amounts of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) can’t increase emissions when reclassifying from a “major source” of emissions to an “area source.” The proposed amendments to the “Reclassification of Major Sources as Area […]
Several environmental and citizen watch groups have filed suit against the EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to force the Agency to strengthen regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to provide better water quality protection. The lawsuit was filed after the EPA denied a 2017 petition that requested a […]
Join us next week (Oct. 16-20) for a full week of free online events and digital resources around safety culture that you can use to plot your safety leadership strategy. Register for event sessions today. Monday, Oct. 16 Educational Session | Permission to Thrive: Empowering Leadership for Psychological Safety Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT Sponsored by: Cority, Intelex, Orasure, Origami Risk […]
Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine ethylene oxide exposure and OSHA’s prevention recommendations. Ethylene oxide (EtO) is one of the many industrial chemicals that workers may come into contact with, depending on the jobsite. In addition to the […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) continues to carry out inspections and issue citations to employers that expose workers to hazardous conditions. We’ve summarized some of the key enforcement cases from the past few months for a look at where OSHA is focusing its efforts. National discount retailer fined $1.35 million OSHA entered a […]
In the third quarter (Q3), the EPA finalized 515 settlement agreements with companies small and large across the United States. This represents a significant increase in enforcement actions—up from 260 penalties—issued in Q2 for 2023. The actions taken resulted in $14,629,489 in fines. Here are some of the highlights. RCRA violations yield biggest fine from […]
Pennsylvania candy maker R.M. Palmer Co. failed to evacuate its employees after some reported smelling gas before a March 2023 explosion that killed seven workers at the company’s West Reading facility, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced October 5. The agency has cited R.M. Palmer with three serious and five other-than-serious workplace safety […]
This week, EHS Daily Advisor wrote about the hierarchy of controls, which companies and regulatory agencies have used to determine how they should implement workplace safety solutions. That inspired us to go back to 1979 for the Song of the Week, a post-punk classic from Joy Division called “She’s Lost Control.” Released on the band’s debut […]
Dawn Wurst spent the majority of her career working at the Flint Hills Resources (FHR) Pine Bend Refinery. During the 20 years she was there, she worked in a range of roles that started in environmental engineering, progressed to process safety, and culminated in serving as safety director of the facility for five years. She […]