Workers’ health and safety are increasingly at risk due to the impacts of climate change that include excessive heat, extreme weather, increasing air and water pollution, and infectious diseases, according to a new report issued July 28 by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “Climate change is already making existing [...]
It seemed like 2020 was going to be the year of a big win for environmental groups in their war against single-use plastic bags. Several states, including New York, California, Maine, and New Jersey, had already enacted or were in the process of enacting bans on the [...]
Two recent Clean Air Act (CAA) settlements—one in Iowa and the other in Kansas—serve as a reminder for companies to review their risk management plans (RMPs) to ensure compliance with the EPA’s Chemical Accident Prevention requirements. An agricultural co-op, which owns a facility in Kansas, paid civil penalties totaling $19,999 [...]
OSHA’s Combustible Dust Program: Where Are We Today? While there is no standard to fine a company for a combustible dust problem, many other standards can be used to enforce combustible dust safety. OSHA put its Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program into place over 10 years ago. Since then, new [...]
Waste management can be a tricky business for hazardous waste generators and transporters and owners or operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs). Among other requirements, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the EPA’s implementing regulations require these entities to use the uniform [...]
COVID-19: EPA Releases List of Registered Disinfectants The EPA has released a list of 82 registered disinfectant products that have been qualified for use against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Products on the list have qualified for use against COVID-19 through the Agency’s Emerging Viral [...]
To get to a higher level of sustainability, companies are looking at recycling nontraditional or secondary commodities. Industrial manufacturing operations have long recognized the benefits of recycling as a way to reduce their solid waste streams. And many have gotten quite good at recycling primary commodities such [...]
EHS professionals have plenty on their plates, but a new study indicates that their job doesn’t stop at just protecting their employees. We talk a lot here about safety, and quite a bit about health, but environment—the E in EHS Today—comes in a distant third among the three topics contained in [...]
While 69% of companies ask suppliers to effectively manage their environmental impacts, only 34% actually provide tools and resources to incentivize action. By now it’s pretty well understood that strong sustainability performance positively influences financial performance. And investors are taking notice as well. In a recent report, [...]
