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.
If you need to kill a plant, you’ll probably use an herbicide. They’re used in agriculture to control weeds on crops of all types. They’re used by the state highway department to wrangle weeds along the roads. They’re used by landscapers to maintain pristine lawns.
It has been 3 years since the ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Texas, killed 15 people, injured hundreds, and caused widespread damage. Just a few months after that event, President Obama’s Executive Order (EO) 13650 set into motion actions by numerous government agencies designed to enhance the safety and security of chemical facilities and reduce […]
At a municipal storage facility in Danville, Pennsylvania, a painting contractor was conducting abrasive blasting to remove paint from water tanks. An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection showed that the workers were overexposed to airborne lead—and to other airborne contaminants as well. If the employer had paid attention to its lead compliance, it […]
At a municipal storage facility in Danville, Pennsylvania, a painting contractor was conducting abrasive blasting to remove paint from water tanks. An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection showed that the workers were overexposed to airborne lead. As a result, OSHA issued several serious and willful violations against the employer for violations of the […]
Following through on an August 2015 proposal, the EPA has issued a Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) for trichloroethylene (TCE) when manufactured or processed for use in a consumer product (exceptions apply).
The final deadline for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) phased-in compliance approach to implementing the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is around the corner—just about 1 month away. This is the deadline that affects all employers covered by OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). Is your organization ready? Here’s […]
A final rule was published in the March 29, 2016 Federal Register that amends the list of chemical substances that are partially exempt from reporting processing and use information under the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule.
Several EPA offices involved in reviewing toxic chemicals for commercial use have been moving to approve alternatives to using live animals—called in vivo testing—as part of their regulatory testing requirements. In the latest development, the Agency’s Office of Pesticide Program (OPP) has issued a document describing a process for evaluating and implementing alternative approaches to […]
A spill or release of a chemical just occurred at your facility. What do you do? Does it need to be reported? What information needs to be reported, to whom, and how soon?
When you think about chemical safety and compliance, the first standard that comes to mind might be the hazard communication standard. However, there are a lot of standards that apply to hazardous chemical safety. Yesterday, we looked at two employers that failed to comply with Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, personal protective equipment, and […]