Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog

Ontario is the first jurisdiction in North America to regulate the sale and use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds, which have been implicated as a significant factor in recent and alarming declines in bee populations. Ontario’s new restrictions on “neonics” came into effect on July 1, 2015, and Jeff Leal, Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, hopes that the restrictions will reduce use of the treated seeds by 80% by 2017.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, Hazcom, Canadian

On December 11, 2015, representatives of 195 countries agreed to continue to expand global efforts to combat climate change. The new Paris Agreement breaks a longstanding impasse with a clever mixture of binding but unenforceable commitments, and present agreements and ongoing agreements-to-agree. It creates a structure that might, or might not, evolve fast enough to prevent the catastrophic climate changes otherwise predicted by most scientific experts.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, climate change

In May 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) completed a decade-spanning joint rulemaking, and issued new definitions of “waters of the United States” that are subject to these agencies’ regulatory authority (under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and related federal laws) (I wrote about these rules here). These rules parse ambiguities in several US Supreme Court decisions to re-establish predictable controls over water-affecting actions.

The rulemaking was highly publicized, including intense efforts by EPA and the Corps to solicit public involvement and comments. The agencies made unprecedented use of social media, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Thunderclap. These included encouragement to recipients to re-post the EPA information to others. When issuing the final rules, the agencies reported that they had conducted more than 400 public meetings and received more than one million public comments (many through social media).

These publicity efforts were also caught up in intense partisan political sparring between the Republican-led Congress against high profile (Democratic) Obama administration environmental initiatives. In part to restrict support building efforts, the 2014 federal budget prohibited expenditures “for publicity or propaganda purposes, and for the preparation, distribution or use of any kit, pamphlet, booklet, publication, radio, television, or film presentation designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress, except in presentation to the Congress itself.” Republicans subsequently charged that the EPA and Corps efforts violated these restrictions, adding those charges to efforts to repeal the new rules. The agencies have defended themselves with claims that their efforts amounted to authorized use of publicity and media to develop or promote their own policies.

Senator James Inhofe, Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, requested the Government Accountability Office (GAO, an independent research and reporting entity under Congressional authority) to investigate this disputed issue, and offer a formal opinion whether agency efforts violated the budgetary restrictions. On December 14, GAO issued its formal reply concluding that some of EPA’s efforts had indeed violated the restrictions. Although EPA had never directly invited the public to comment to Congress or to lawmakers, some of EPA’s postings provided hyperlinks to advocacy group pages that did so; for example, EPA provided links to Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Surfrider Foundation webpages that took positions on the issues and encouraged viewers to provide responses to Congress. In addition, other advocates had reposted the EPA information along with their own messages including encouragement to political action. GAO concluded that these links did violate restrictions.

As of this writing, EPA had acknowledged but rejected GAO’s conclusions. However, practitioners are cautioning agencies and non-governmental advocates to review their use of hyperlinks to consider whether “secondhand” advocacy or informational campaigns are attributable to the original source. For EPA and other agencies these considerations will affect use of appropriated funds, and for others they will affect use of hyperlinks in political contexts.

Self-Assessment Checklist

Does my organization routinely provide information via social media?

If so, does this information include advocacy as well as factual statements or advertisements?

If so, does the organization have policies or approaches to inclusion of hyperlinks to third parties in its postings, and to inclusions of hyperlinks to its postings by third parties?

Where Can I Go For More Information? Read More

Tags: Environmental, EHS, EPA, Internet

It takes time to stand in the bookstore and figure out which books will make suitable gifts for the little people in your life. Some book covers masquerade as educational and enriching, but when you open them up, they are vapid and do not offer any challenging material, nor new thoughts to open up a child’s mind. If you are looking for books that introduce environmental themes and get kids thinking and asking the questions that matter, here is what I can recommend:

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS

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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Tags: Health & Safety, OSHA, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, Hazcom

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers a Worker Protection Standard (WPS) designed to protect workers exposed to agricultural pesticides. WPS is patterned after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA's) Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) for workers in most other industrial and commercial settings. EPA adopted the WPS in 1992, and just adopted its first revisions late in September 2015. Some of these changes incorporate revisions to HCS adopted by OSHA in 2012 (see here), while others catch up on two decades of industrial hygiene and worker safety practices. The revisions will appear in the Federal Register (probably in November) and become effective 60 days later. Compliance deadlines extend for up to 2 years for the various changes.

What Does WPS Require Now?

I summarized longstanding WPS requirements when I blogged last year about EPA’s proposed revisions (click here ). To further summarize my summary, WPS requires employers whose employees work with or around pesticides to provide the following:

• Pesticide safety training

• Labeling information

• Specific information including pesticide-specific training within 5 days after beginning work (“grace period”), supplementing immediate emergency information and a pesticide safety poster

• Requirements to keep workers out of areas being treated with pesticides, within nurseries and greenhouses (“buffer”)

• Requirements to keep workers out of areas during a restricted-entry interval (REI) set for each pesticide

• Protect early-entry workers doing permitted tasks in pesticide-treated areas during an REI, including special instructions and personal protective equipment (PPE)

• Required warning to nearby workers about pesticide-treated areas (oral and/or warning signs, depending on the chemical)

• Monitor handlers using highly toxic pesticides, at least every 2 hours

• Provide required PPE to handlers (e.g., clothing, respirators)

• Provide decontamination supplies

• Provide for emergency assistance.

Some requirements apply on behalf of all agricultural workers who may be exposed, plus additional requirements for pesticide handlers who work with regulated pesticides.

What Changes is EPA Adopting?

EPA has adopted a wide variety of revisions, including provisions that have changed significantly from last year’s proposal. Revisions include:

• Training (compliance deadline delayed for 2 years):

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Tags: Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, Employee Rights, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA

Tags: Health & Safety, OSHA, Environmental risks, Environmental, Hazcom, pharmaceuticals

Tags: Audit Standards, Health & Safety, California Legislation, Training, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, Hazcom, mact

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers rules governing the import and export of hazardous waste regulated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). These rules implement requirements established by RCRA, and also ensure that the U.S. meets its international responsibilities as a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) by creating national rules that meet agreed-upon OECD standards. The proposal should appear in the Federal Register soon, opening a 60 day comment period after which EPA will decide whether to finalize the changes.

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Tags: Health & Safety, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, RCRA, Canadian

Cal/OSHA has adopted final rules, effective October 1, 2015, that update the state’s regulations relating to storage battery systems and to changing and charging storage batteries. The purpose of this action is to update standards for storage batteries to address modern types of batteries in addition to clarifying regulations applicable to traditional lead–acid batteries.

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Tags: Health & Safety, OSHA, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, Hazcom