The year 2013 has been another relatively quiet one for most environmental health and safety (EH&S) compliance personnel. Continuing differences in Congress have stymied would-be initiatives on both sides of the partisan aisles, so there were no meaningful legislative changes.
Tags: Health & Safety, OSHA, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Hazcom, Transportation
Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Free! All are welcome
Tags: Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, Employee Rights, Training, EHS, Hazcom, STC, Webinar
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Standard for Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals (usually referred to as “PSM”) in 1992, requires extensive risk assessments and reduction efforts by facilities where a significant incident involving these chemicals might have catastrophic consequences. OSHA adopted PSM in 1992, and has made only minor technical revisions in the ensuing two decades. However, several federal and state initiatives are developing recommendations and may lead to significant changes in 2014.
Tags: Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, OSHA, Training, Environmental, EHS, Hazcom
Do you ever wonder whether auditing of greenhouse gas emissions is working? It may be a bit early in the game to say for sure, given that GHG emission tracking standards are a recent phenomenon. But an annual report compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may be a good gauge of trends in emission reductions, judging by its latest installment.
Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Health & Safety, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg
Advances in field techniques have recently made hydraulic fracturing— “fracking”—a major part of energy production in the United States and Canada. Frackers pump high-pressure fluids into rock formations to expand cracks and create pathways for valuable hydrocarbons to flow out. The stimulant fluids are usually water-based, with additional chemicals (acids, surfactants, biocides, etc.) to improve effectiveness and solid ‘proppants’ to prop open the expanded openings (sand, etc.). Read my earlier blog here
Tags: Health & Safety, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, Hazcom, fracking, hydraulic fracking, Oil & Gas
Do you know what's in the chemical products you buy and use, and whether they're "safe?" Effective October 1, 2013, California regulations provide criteria and procedures for state-level identification and listing of likely-hazardous chemicals of concern. Manufacturers and importers will be required to evaluate chemicals of concern in consumer products, their potential alternatives, and how best to limit exposure or reduce hazards. Assemblers and retailers will have related responsibilities. Although these requirements apply directly only within California, any reviews and reformulations are likely to affect global production and distribution decisions.
Tags: Health & Safety, California Legislation, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Hazcom
On May 29, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a final rule that revises the regulations for cranes and derricks used in construction. These amendments expand the digger-derrick exemption to include all digger derricks used in construction work subject to 29 CFR1926 subpart V, Power Transmission and Distribution. A digger derrick (also called a radial boom derrick) is a specialized type of equipment designed to install utility poles. This revision removes from coverage under 29 CFR 1926 subpart CC certain types of non-pole digger-derrick work described by Edison Electrical Institute. OSHA also made several minor clarifications to the text of the exemption.
Tags: Corporate Governance, Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, OSHA, Employee Rights, Training, EHS
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One small but critically important sub-category of chemical incidents consists of those that can produce mass casualties, usually when a cloud of toxic or superheated gases are spewed out by a fire or explosion. Given America’s fragmented approach to hazardous materials regulation, it’s no surprise that separate regulatory programs have grown up to address these concerns—leading inevitably to overlaps and gaps in coverage.
Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Health & Safety, OSHA, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, Hazcom
Tags: Business & Legal, Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, RCRA
If government provided a unified approach to chemical regulation, then each chemical might be subject to a single set of requirements, which ideally would be tailored to reflect chemical-specific hazards throughout its life cycle. Instead, each chemical is subject to its own loosely connected (some would say haphazard) collection of environmental, health and safety (EH&S) requirements. Some are federal, some are state (or provincial if you’re in Canada), and others are regional and even local. You may need to refer to agencies at all three levels (federal, state and local) to identify your regulators and their requirements – although many organizations only deal with the agency responsible for permitting and inspecting day-to-day activities.
Tags: Audit Standards, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Hazcom, MSDS, mact
