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Ask the Expert: Protection From Fumes When Cutting Stainless Steel

In our latest installment of Ask the Expert, brought to you by the team of industry experts at EHS Hero®, we look at a recent question from a subscriber asking whether an N95 or N99 mask protects the user from fumes when cutting stainless steel. See what the experts had to say. Q: Does an […]

OSHA Urges Employers to Emphasize Electrical Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) urged employers in the Midwest to emphasize electrical safety following four workplace fatalities in Kansas and Missouri. A 41-year-old in Wichita, Kansas, doing heating and air conditioning work on July 13; a 35-year-old electrical contractor climbing a pole in Lawrence, Kansas, on June 8; a 40-year-old electrical contractor […]

OSHA Vaccine, Testing ETS Indefinitely Stayed

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency rule was indefinitely stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans on November 12. After issuing an initial stay on November 6, the three-judge panel reaffirmed its stay, instructing OSHA and the Department of Labor to take […]

Back to Basics: Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Fire Protection Systems

Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine inspection, testing, and maintenance of fire protection systems. If there’s a fire in your facility, sprinkler systems can make a big difference in terms of reducing the chance of dying, as […]

Safely Reopening Idle Buildings

As the COVID pandemic gradually subsides, facility managers and HVAC professionals worldwide face the challenge of safely bringing buildings back online. While ensuring the mechanical system is ready to handle the many challenges of increased occupancy is important, minimizing the possible transmission of SAR-CoV-2 is critical. The following article is designed to provide facility managers […]

The Three Key Parts of an EHS Corrective Action Plan

Corrective action is an important aspect of EHS management that is used to fix operational issues, keep employees safe, and reduce environmental impacts. Corrective actions can originate from a specific incident that spontaneously occurs, an internal audit that discovers something is amiss within an organization, or a regulatory agency inspection that seeks to determine if […]

Houston Concert Tragedy Casts Crowd Management into the Spotlight

Update 11/15/21: The death toll has risen to 10 after a college student and 9-year-old boy critically injured at the event later died. Over the weekend, tragedy unfolded at NRG Park in Houston when eight young concert goers, between the ages of 14 and 27, were killed when reported crowd surges occurred during the Astroworld festival, which […]

Can PFAS be Eliminated? EPA’s Efforts to Date

The EPA on October 18 revealed its PFAS Strategic Roadmap: EPA’s Commitments to Action 2021-2024 as part of a multiagency frontal assault to address pollution from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS are popular for their fire-resistant abilities and the properties that allow them to repel water, oil, stains, and grease. PFAS are also known […]

Favorite Faces of EHS: Making Safety a Value Within Your Organization

When we started “Faces of EHS” back in January 2020, we envisioned it as a profile series in which we could chat with professionals who are on the front lines of environment, health, and safety (EHS) work. It was our goal to get many perspectives on the breadth and scope of what EHS professionals are […]

Company Agrees to Reduced Flaring in Iowa and Texas

Three subsidiaries of a multinational chemical company reached a $3.4 million civil penalty settlement agreement with the EPA and Department of Justice (DOJ) in October 2021, the EPA announced. The agreement includes upgrades and “compliance measures estimated to cost $50 million to resolve allegations they violated the Clean Air Act (CAA) and state air pollution […]