“No one should have to sacrifice their life for their livelihood, because a nation built on the dignity of work must provide safe working conditions for its people.”
– Secretary of Labor, Thomas E. Perez
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Tags: Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, OSHA, Employee Rights, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, Transportation
Valley fever is an illness that usually affects the lungs and is caused by the microscopic fungus known as Coccidiodes immitis, which lives in the top two to twelve inches of soil. While the fungal spores may be present in soils throughout California, they are endemic in the Central Valley counties of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Luis Obispo, and Tulare.
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Tags: Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, Employee Rights, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS
Did you know that “what you drive, how you drive, and what fuel you use can impact both the environment and your pocketbook?” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put together a Green Vehicle Guide website that provides useful information and answers to all your questions about how you can go green on the road and save money too.
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Tags: Health & Safety, California Legislation, Training, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, Transportation
The federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and state water quality laws (including California’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act) govern activities that may affect “waters of the United States.” Routine discharges from industrial and public sources make up most potentially polluting discharges, and are subject to National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and California Waste Discharge Requirements (WDRs), but additional requirements also apply to potential “storm water” runoff from rainwater and snow, which can entrain oils and other pollutants and wash them down storm drains into water bodies. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the first broad-based national program in 1990, and has revised and expanded requirements over the past quarter century (often in response to court decisions finding its efforts inadequate). States have followed suit. For example, in 2014 California updated its industrial storm water requirements, replacing a general permit adopted in 1997 with a new one that becomes effective on July 1, 2015. The new permit revises and expands requirements, including narrowing exemptions for “light industry” facilities to become conditional exemptions subject to certification requirements, and addition of detailed requirements for “preproduction plastic” materials. The remainder of this note summarizes the new California requirements, which generally are comparable to EPA’s national general permit (last updated in 2008)–so readers outside California should remember that your facilities face analogous responsibilities.
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Tags: Health & Safety, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom
Although day-to-day environmental regulations tend to focus on water quality, water quantity is also an issue … and can be a critical one. Here in California, we’re experiencing the third year of a drought of historic proportions; our Sierra Nevada snowpack is at 18% of average as winter ends. As the drought continues, state and local agencies are taking stronger and stronger measures to limit water use. The State Water Resources Control Board SWRCB) has just proposed to expand emergency regulations adopted in July 2014.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA
A wide variety of federal, state and even local laws apply environmental, health and safety (EH&S) protection requirements to chemicals. EH&S compliance personnel are accustomed to complying with chemical management requirements imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and their state equivalents.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Health & Safety, OSHA, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, Hazcom
How many times have you popped the batteries out of those old smoke detectors when the alarm blasted over burnt toast…and then failed to put the batteries back in? Or how about not replacing the batteries when they die or checking to see if the alarm is still in working order? Is there even a smoke detector in the house?
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Health & Safety, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, Transportation
I love a good novel with an environmental theme and reading in the summer is one of the best ways to relax. There have already been many days this summer where it’s too hot to do anything except sit under a tree, sip a cold drink and get immersed in a novel. So I have created a list of books that I think are some of the best environmental fiction reads.
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Tags: Business & Legal, California Legislation, Environmental
Now that you’ve switched from ordering paper or CD publications to online ones from STP, I thought I’d share a few creative ways to make your old binders and CDs useful!
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Tags: Business & Legal, California Legislation, Environmental, EHS
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has revised a guide that identifies eight mechanical motions and eight hazardous actions that present possible amputation hazards. The guide also sets forth steps employers can take to reduce these hazards. The material is appropriate for anyone responsible for the operation, servicing, and care of machines or equipment: employers, employees, safety professionals, and industrial hygienists. Topics covered in this document include hazard analysis, awareness devices, and hazardous energy (lockout/tagout), and safeguarding machinery. An excerpt follows:
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Health & Safety, OSHA, California Legislation, Training