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.
Every environment, health, and safety (EHS) manager is faced with the daunting and tedious task of ensuring that the hazardous chemicals in their workplace are correctly classified. And, every EHS manager is aware that the correct classification of chemicals and their hazards is the first critical step in ensuring the safety of the workers who […]
There are several significant revisions in EPA’s proposal to amend its Risk Management Program (RMP) affecting approximately 12,500 facilities holding threshold quantities of regulated chemicals. There are also several significant omissions.
June 1, 2016, is the final deadline in the 4-year phase-in period for OSHA’s 2012 revisions to the hazard communication standard that aligned with the Globally Harmonized System for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals, or GHS. Check out the infographic for an overview of what the final deadline requires and tips to make sure […]
Yesterday, we looked at the health hazards OSHA identified in the paint room at a Connecticut amusement park. But paint rooms pose more than just health hazards. The chemicals involved in paint spray operations also pose fire and explosion hazards that must be addressed. When it inspected the paint spray room at Lake Compounce Family […]
At Lake Compounce Family Theme Park in Bristol, Connecticut, visitors can ride the Boulder Dash – a wooden coaster that reaches speeds above 60 mph – or the brand-new Phobia – a steel coaster that flips riders through a cobra inversion 150 feet in the air. But behind the thrills and chills were some working […]
Q. An EHS chemical, Sulfuric Acid, exceeds 500 pounds. Therefore aggregation of Sulfuric Acid containing compounds is required in TRI reporting. In that aggregation, are lab chemicals included or exempted?
Some hazardous chemical exposures are easy to identify. When workers are involved in spray-finishing operations, they obviously risk exposure to paint-related aerosols. When workers in a laboratory are pipetting chemical reagents, they obviously need to take precautions against exposure. Some exposures are far less obvious—but that doesn’t necessarily make them any less dangerous.
Q. Would the risk management plan (RMP) flammable substance exemption include warehouses? We will store cans of foam containing isobutane. Will the RMP regulations apply?
Workers have been trained to rely on chemical labels and safety data sheets (SDSs) for chemical hazard information—and rightly so, most of the time. However, some chemical hazards don’t come neatly packaged and labeled. That doesn’t make them any less dangerous. Yesterday, we looked at the hazards of vehicle exhaust and flammable vapors. Here are […]
Most hazardous chemicals arrive in the workplace with personalized calling cards: the labels and safety data sheets (SDSs) required by law to accompany them. Unfortunately, not all chemicals are so accommodating. Some may slip into the workplace unannounced, unnoticed, and unrecognized. Beware of these chemical hazards that may have crept in under your nose! Exhaust […]