Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog

Last August, President Obama issued an Executive Order (EO 13650) to agencies with responsibilities for chemical facility safety (I blogged about it here). The EO provides for a Chemical Facility Safety and Security Working Group, co-chaired by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS, which administers the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, which administers the Accidental Release Prevention (ARP) program under Clean Air Act) and Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA, which administers Chemical Process Safety Management (PSM) Standard), and also including the Departments of Transportation, Justice (DOJ) and Agriculture. It directs them to work together to improve their operational coordination, and to consult with other security and environmental agencies at all levels of government, as well as the White House.

A study published in 1996 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) illustrates the value of applying ergonomic controls to aspects of the beverage delivery industry and demonstrates the effectiveness these measures have in reducing musculoskeletal injuries through psychophysical, physiological, and biomechanical methods.

The best strategies for workplace violence prevention involve updated and enforced company policies; an awareness that real perpetrators don’t necessarily make direct threats to their targets; and the creation of Threat Assessment Teams to manage situations successfully. These four management interventions can help those efforts as well.

Knowing CASL’s exemptions is key to learning how it applies to your business.

Many organizations have mailrooms that receive posted mail, and packages shipped using parcel and express services. In some of these organizations, mailrooms also serve as the entry point for deliveries of goods and products by other venders. If your organization has a mailroom, it offers entry into your workplace for potentially dangerous materials, including those sent without harmful intent but also without appropriate packaging, and those sent in order to harm individuals or the organization.

Boards of directors are responsible for governing their corporations. Many boards divide their work among committees that are assigned specific tasks. Standard committees include an “audit committee,” with responsibilities that may include:

New anti-spam regulations that go into effect July 1 will do more than prevent spamming within Canada by Canadian businesses. Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL) is a catch-all net that covers all forms of electronic messaging, from email and newsletters to social media and software downloads. Businesses that don’t comply face fines of up to $10 million.

On June 2, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a new Clean Power Plan, in which the agency will apply its authority under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs). EPA calculates that these power plants account for roughly one-third of all domestic GHG emissions in the US. Advocates on opposite sides of this controversial proposal claim this Plan would either become the most important US initiative to address climate change, and/or would crash economies through much of the US heartland by strangling coal-fired electricity production. Let’s hope we end up closer to the optimistic scenario!

Working as a Senior Editor at Specialty Technical Publishers, I edit environmental manuals each day. It is not only my job to read about ecological issues, I also really care about protecting our environment.

It's nearly time to start worrying that outdoor work in the summer sun will lead to heat illness. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides some guidance to employers and their workers, while the Sun Belt California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) administers detailed regulatory requirements promulgated under state law. If you have outdoor workers in California you must comply with the following requirements, while if you're anywhere else you should at least consider them.