The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates thousands of chemicals, through a variety of regulatory standards. At the broadest level, employers must evaluate basic information about every potentially hazardous chemical, and provide information to employees in compliance with OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard. OSHA also provides somewhat-more-tailored requirements for classes of chemicals (such as flammables), and for types of activities that pose chemical hazards (such as welding). For a small number of especially hazardous chemicals, OSHA provides a detailed standard applicable to a single chemical—examples include asbestos, benzene, and lead. On September 12, 2013, OSHA published a proposal to establish just such a single chemical standard, for crystalline silica (29 CFR section 1910.1053).
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fracking,
Oil & Gas
The greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program overseen by California’s Air Resources Board (ARB), which began earlier this year, not only allows for use of approved offsets to meet a portion of an entity’s emission reduction requirements. Entities will soon also be able to comply with the program by participating in its counterpart in the Canadian province of Quebec. By January 1, 2014, ARB’s cap-and-trade program will be linked with Quebec’s. A press release from ARB sums up key features of the linkage:
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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.
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California Legislation,
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Last week the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published major changes in the registration requirements it imposes on “motor carriers” that use roads and highways to transport materials—including hazardous materials. Over the next two years, these changes will consolidate four separate registration systems into a new web-based Unified Registration System (URS), designed to cover every domestic entity subject to FMCSA authority. Most elements of the new regulations will take effect on October 23, 2015, to allow FMCSA to develop additional URS features and to conduct several related rulemakings, and to allow regulated entities to prepare for the changes in compliance requirements.
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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.
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Greenhouse Gas,
Hazcom
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.
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Audit Standards,
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Hazcom,
MSDS,
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