The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) adopted massive changes to its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS or Hazcom) effective May 25, 2012, updating chemical information, labeling and training requirements that had been in place since the 1980s. These revised requirements conform U.S. requirements to international guidelines under the U.N.-sponsored Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). Recognizing the extent of these changes, OSHA provided multi-year compliance phase-ins for employers whose workers manufacture, distribute or use chemicals (I’ve previously blogged about the changes here, here and here). The next such deadline is December 1, 2015, when distributors must only ship containers that meet the latest labeling requirements – so if you work for an employer that’s an end user of chemicals, all containers entering your facility must meet these requirements rather than the pre-2012 requirements.
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Health & Safety,
OSHA,
Environmental risks,
Environmental,
EHS,
Hazcom
For more than 25 years, I’ve taught one of the core required courses in the Hazardous Materials Management Certificate program offered by University of California Santa Cruz Extension (UCSC-Ex). The program is intended to provide professionals with a solid foundation in the principles, regulations, and technologies required to manage hazardous materials and hazardous waste. In my course–the Regulatory Framework for Toxic and Hazardous Materials–I provide overviews of:
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Audit Standards,
Health & Safety,
California Legislation,
Training,
Environmental risks,
Environmental,
EHS,
Greenhouse Gas,
ghg,
Hazcom,
mact
In recent years, VW officials have sometimes been quoted touting their “clean diesel” vehicles by paraphrasing one of their competitors—“this isn’t your grandfather’s diesel.” This month VW finally admitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and customers worldwide that it “isn’t your regulator’s diesel” either. The company had programmed the electronics in millions of vehicles to provide false data during required emissions tests.
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Health & Safety,
Environmental risks,
Environmental,
EHS,
EPA,
Hazcom,
CAA,
Transportation
A wide variety of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards require employers to acquire or create documentation of employees’ exposures to potentially hazardous materials and contaminants in their workplaces, and to inform employees of the presence of these hazards. For example, the Hazard Communication Standard (Hazcom) requires most employers to acquire Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) and provide workplace labeling and employee training. Other standards require employers to monitor their workplaces for airborne exposures to contaminants, and to compare such exposures to permissible exposure limits (PELs) or action levels. Some standards require employers to conduct medical monitoring of employees who are subject to such exposures. These records can be vitally important to provide information on long-term (chronic) health effects of exposures.
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Employer Best Practices,
Health & Safety,
OSHA,
Employee Rights,
EHS,
Hazcom
Although Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) requirements target hundreds of micro-organisms (primarily viruses and bacteria), regulation of important hazards remain on the drawing boards, awaiting appropriate testing and control methodologies, sufficient resources … and high enough political priorities. Until recently, one of these unregulated pathogens has been the legionella bacterium, first identified in 1976 as the cause of “Legionnaire’s disease” – named after an outbreak at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia traced to the hotel’s air conditioning system. This summer, however, an outbreak in New York has led state and local health agencies to adopt extremely ambitious testing and disinfection programs.
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Environmental,
EHS,
EPA
How often do you read something that not only changes the things that you think about in life, it also changes the things you do?
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Environmental,
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ghg,
Hazcom
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has just proposed to revise its requirement that employers prepare and maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses as they occur – in “I&I Logs.” (I blogged about these requirements here). Employers must also post annual I&I Summaries in each workplace, and respond to survey questions if asked by OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Employer Best Practices,
Health & Safety,
OSHA,
Employee Rights,
Environmental risks,
Environmental,
EHS,
Hazcom
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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Employer Best Practices,
Health & Safety,
Employee Rights,
California Legislation,
Environmental risks,
Environmental,
EHS
Management of chemicals by your organization raises a host of environmental health and safety (EH&S) issues. Some of those issues are represented by legal and regulatory compliance requirements, others by formal but non-binding programs that range from company policies to ISO certifications. In response, organizations adopt and implement a wide variety of EH&S programs, including very broad ones (e.g., compliance with the Hazard Communication Standard) as well as very narrow ones (e.g., programs for managing entry into Confined Spaces). Organizations with sufficient resources and the will to organize themselves will create systematic programs to evaluate EH&S issues to ensure they’re addressed, and to design and coordinate programs in ways that do so effectively and efficiently. (In 2013-2014 I prepared a series of e-books that outlined EH&S regulatory requirements triggered by chemicals - click here to download).
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Audit Standards,
Health & Safety,
OSHA,
Environmental risks,
Environmental,
EHS,
Hazcom
Last weekend’s disastrous earthquakes in Nepal are a reminder that natural disasters can strike anywhere. Employers can and should plan for a broad range of events, and can apply guidance from occupational safety and health agencies standards when doing so. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers with specified activities to prepare and implement emergency action plans (EAPs), provides guidance for EAPs, and recommends that all employers prepare these plans. Employers can use this structure to prepare for earthquakes.
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Corporate Governance,
Employer Best Practices,
OSHA,
Environmental risks,
Environmental,
EHS,
EPA
