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.
As required by the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the EPA has issued its second annual plan identifying existing chemical substances for which risk evaluations are expected to be initiated or completed in 2018, the resources necessary for their completion, the status of each risk evaluation initiated but not yet completed, […]
In August 2017, the EPA finalized the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory Notification Requirements, less formally referred to as the TSCA Inventory Reset Rule. The purpose of the rule is to clarify the status of the tens of thousands of chemicals in the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory by designating each as either “active” or […]
The new year has just arrived, but March 1 will be here before you know it and, with it, the deadline for submitting your Tier II Hazardous Chemical Inventory reports. Much has stayed the same for Tier II reporting, but do you know what has changed on this year’s Tier II report?
When Martians invaded Earth in H.G. Wells’s novel, War of the Worlds, none of Earth’s armies and none of Earth’s weapons could stop their relentless march. What ultimately saved humanity? A microscopic bacterium. As the unfortunate Martian invaders discovered, sometimes it’s the little things that get you. In a nonfiction analogue, researchers who work with […]
In Lawrence Raab’s poem, “Attack of the Crab Monsters,” a biochemist bewails the fact that his research has outstripped his preparedness to deal with its potential hazards. “It’s the old story, predictable/as fallout,” the narrator opines, “the rearrangement of molecules.” The narrator’s molecules have been rearranged into the form of a crab-monster—“I’m not used to […]
Yesterday we discussed a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiative to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Today we will look at ways to control PFAS exposure in the workplace.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched an initiative to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The federal initiative will basically provide information and support state attempts to regulate the substances. States and the EPA are also keeping an eye on alternatives developed to replace PFAS. How are these efforts affecting your operations?
Four groups have filed a legal complaint against the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) for not meeting a Clean Air Act (CAA) requirement to issue a regulation requiring that operators of chemical facilities report accidental releases of chemicals to the ambient air.
The EPA announced that it has determined that a revision of the current small business size standards under a section of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is warranted. Although the Agency does not indicate how the standards will change, it does state that based on current economic conditions, the levels used to define a […]
Beginning in 1980, the chemical plant in Bladen County, North Carolina, owned by DuPont and its spin-off company Chemours began discharging wastewater into the Cape Fear River. One of the chemicals in the wastewater was a fluorochemical called GenX, that wasn’t covered by any rule, regulation, or permit—like many other industrial byproducts, GenX was discharged, […]