Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
When OSHA inspectors returned to an Atlanta food manufacturing facility and found previously cited hazards had reoccurred, the company management took an unusual step: company representatives told OSHA the company accepted responsibility for the safety and health hazards and signed a pre-citation settlement agreement with OSHA on January 15.
The EPA has proposed 30 chemical contaminants/groups for its 4th Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 4). The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) specifies that the UCMR must list no more than 30 contaminants or groups—called the contaminant candidate list (CCL)—and that the EPA must produce a revised list every 5 years. Also, as required by […]
A company in Waverly, Ohio, was recently fined over $56,000 for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) lead standard concerning exposure monitoring and the use of personal protective equipment. Today we will review the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for lead, take a look at what happened in this particular case, and urge […]
Following its Clean Air Act (CAA) residual risk and technology review (RTR) of its 1995 National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) covering aerospace manufacturing and rework facilities, the EPA is amending NESHAP by establishing requirements for specialty coating operations, which were not previously subject to NESHAP.
Q. Can you please help me translate the federal rule regarding an “Onsite Consolidation facility”?
This is Thanksgiving week and as environment, health, and safety (EHS) professionals, we all want to make sure employees are at home celebrating with their families and not at the hospital, or worse, because of an inadvertent exposure to chemicals on the job. Today we offer three tips for preventing chemical exposure in the workplace […]
Each year in the United States, about 4,500 workers die from work-related injuries, and more than 50,000 die from work-related illnesses. More than 3 million suffer nonfatal occupational injuries or illnesses; 2.8 million are treated in the emergency department; and 140,000 are hospitalized. The price tag to employers reaches $250 billion each year. Although employers […]
Millions of Americans are employed in growing, producing, cooking, and serving food. Despite their importance to the economy and to our daily lives, these workers and the hazards they face remain largely invisible. This article addresses food-worker risks and some of the initiatives and innovations involved in reducing them.
Written under the authority of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA’s governing regulation was issued in 1986 and was initially called the Inventory Update Rule (IUR). In a 2011 action, the Agency changed the name to the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule. Under the CDR rule, between June 1, 2016, and September 30, 2016, […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been under pressure to update and better manage its Clean Air Act Risk Management Program and is moving ever closer to a proposed rule that will modify the program. The Agency continues to scrutinize facilities that are required to have risk management plans. Today we will review a […]