Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Today’s workplace uses thousands of chemicals, many of which are hazardous. The resources in this section will help guide you in the safe and legal identification, storage, transport, and use of these chemicals, and in making sure that your employees right to know how to be safe around such substances is provided, as required by law.
A state appeals court has ruled that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) must provide documents utilized to revise its ethylene oxide (EtO) risk assessment to the Sierra Club. Background EtO is a flammable gas used to sterilize medial equipment and, when mixed with other chemicals, as a building block to make dish soap, […]
The EPA finalized its rule adding 12 chemicals to the list of chemicals subject to Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting, which provides important information about how these chemicals are being managed by facilities in a given community. “Available data show these chemicals have moderately high to high human health toxicity and/or are highly toxic to […]
The EPA in November released a notice to modify and supplement its proposed revisions to the Fees for the Administration of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Rule. The proposed fee increases are substantial. The TSCA Fees Rule was first promulgated in 2018. The 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21stCentury Act directs […]
The EPA recently unveiled its “Strategy to Reduce Lead Exposures and Disparities in U.S. Communities” to advance its objectives to protect the public from lead, with a renewed focus upon high-risk communities. The Agency announced the strategy during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week in Omaha, Nebraska, which was once home to a large lead smelter […]
The EPA published the Final Fifth Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List (CCL 5), which will serve as the basis for the Agency’s regulatory considerations over the next five-year cycle under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The updated list includes a substantial expansion of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—an important first step toward identifying additional […]
A safety video released October 27 by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigations Board (CSB) reached 1 million views on YouTube within a week, the CSB announced November 7. The video, “Wake Up Call: Refinery Disaster in Philadelphia,” details the June 21, 2019, fire, series of explosions, and toxic hydrofluoric acid (HF) release at […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced 26 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award winners across 14 states and the District of Columbia, recognizing their achievements in the design, manufacture, selection, and use of products with safer chemicals. The Safer Choice program helps consumers and purchasers for facilities, such as schools and office […]
In our latest installment of Ask the Expert, brought to you by the team of industry experts at EHS Hero®, we look at a recent question from a subscriber asking about the proper disposal method for Freez-Therm. See what the experts had to say. Q: What is the process for determining the most appropriate method of […]
A recent jury ruling in Cook County, Illinois, granting a $360 million win to plaintiff Sue Kamuda in her damages suit against medical sterilizer Sterigenics’ Willowbrook plant does not bode well for facilities using ethylene oxide (EtO). In the suit, Kamuda claimed she contracted cancer from breathing emissions from the facility over three decades. According […]
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) recently released final reports on two concluded investigations and updates on four ongoing investigations. The CSB’s October 11 final report on a June 2019 fire and explosion at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) Refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, identified several safety issues. During the incident, a corroded […]