OSHA Announces Actions for Worker Injury Prevention for Butter Flavorings

OSHA recently announced three new actions that address the growing concern of workers that are directly exposed to artificial butter flavoring. The actions are as follows:

· Initiating a rulemaking under section 6(b) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
· Issuing a Safety and Health Information Bulletin (SHIB)
· Providing a Hazard Communication Guidance

These recent actions are in recent concerns regarding workers in the microwave popcorn butter flavoring plants. The chemical to blame is diacetyl.

Each action taken is an important step to notifying employers and workers of the dangers associated with this chemical. The communication guideline helps establish MSDS sheets, and to be in compliance with OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard.

For more information on this and other new topics of interest in the safety world visit http://www.osha.gov/.

Recycle that Bottle…

The new wave in recycling is cold extrusion. It is playing an even great part of waste plastic than before. Engineers at Bradford University are testing different processes in plastic recycling, using cold and warm extrusion. What they have found so far are that cold extrusion was more suited to recycled plastic. They are able to cold extrude it into sheets or blocks.

The plant at Bradford is currently sending its recycled plastic off to be manufactured into acoustic baffles for use in new construction. The market is ready and driven by new Building Regulations. These is just another step in the ‘Green Revolution’.

What page are you on?

Environmental professionals hold their technical skills and ability to offer accurate results in high regard however all of the ‘normal’ aspects of an environmental professional’s job are slowly being changed. Networking is the new tool of the trade for the environmental professional. The new concern within the industry is will the professionals have the networking skills and capabilities to influence executive management during the current period of rapid change?

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch said last year in Fortune magazine said that the most important thing an individual can have is good relationship skills, everything else can be learned on the job. So start adding a little socializing time into your next conference.

EPA takes on the Air at Ports Nationwide

The EPA has recently announced it is working to get the nation’s supply chain closer to cleaner, fuel efficient practices. The project will showcase a new EPA-patented technology on large equipment used to move the goods and products from ships to trucks. The machines are heavy duty diesel machines that contribute to the air pollutions in ports across the country.

The new technology is a hydraulic hybrid and features a unique power train that can generate, recover, store and reuse braking power with very little air pollution. The hydraulic vehicles will use a diesel-hydraulic system that will combine the cleanest available diesel engine technology with components that use hydraulic fluid compression to store energy. This new system has the potential to reduce close to 1,000 gallons of fuel per year. This test will demonstrate the quality and cleanliness of the new hydraulic hybrid engines.

For more information visit the EPA’s website at www.epa.gov.

Puget Sound Pollution Prevention

The Department of Ecology is anticipating awarding 8 to 12 partnership agreements, ranging from $200,000 to $400,000 through June 2009. The funding is to help small businesses in the Puget Sound area reduce and prevent water pollution. Nearly 70% of the state’s hazardous waste generators are in the Puget Sound region.

With the funding the local governments and small businesses will hopefully be able to safely manage hazardous and sold wastes.

For more information on the program visit www.ecy.wa.gov.

EPA Defended in 9/11 Aftermath

Testifying for the first time during a congressional hearing that was established to solely evaluate the EPA’s actions in the after hours on the 9/11 attack former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman claimed she based her actions of declaring the air around Ground Zero ‘safe’ based on the assurances of agency scientist.

Whitman’s testimony directly conflicts a press release issued by the EPA after 9/11 in which Whitman was quoted as saying “results from the agency’s air and drinking water monitoring near the World Trade Center and Pentagon disaster sites indicate that these vital resources are safe.”

Since the destruction at Ground Zero several individuals who worked on or near Ground Zero have become afflicted with respiratory illnesses presumably due to the large amounts of dust/chemicals/contamination that occurred at the site.

Whitman did add that she encouraged individuals to wear respirators and other protective equipment, and that the EPA had no authority or ability to enforce that requirement, and that the agency couldn’t be held responsible for the illnesses suffered by the workers.

What’s Eating Your Gloves?

OSHA and the EPA have recently joined forces to develop and maintain a database of occupational chemicals. The database compiles information from several different government agencies and organizations.

This is a great tool to find out what certain chemicals are that you or your employees may be working with. The available reports include: physical properties, exposure guidelines, NIOSH Pocket Guide, Emergency Response information including the DOT Emergency Response Guide.

To check out the new database simply go to www.osha.gov/web/dep/chemicaldata/

Who’s Covered?

Licenses, Registrations, and renewals…do you know what you need?

One of the most important aspects of staying on top of your safety program, besides proper safety training, is knowing what regulations pertain to you and your employees. OSHA has clearly defined who is covered by OSHA’s HAZWOPER standard, or otherwise know as the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard.

This standard applies specifically to (5) groups of individuals:

• Clean-up operations – required by a governmental body, whether federal, state, local, or other involving hazardous substances – that are conducted at uncontrolled hazardous sites
• Corrective actions involving clean-up operations at sites covered by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA)
• Voluntary clean-up operations at sites recognized by federal, state, local, or other governmental body as uncontrolled hazardous waste sites
• Operations involving hazardous wastes that are conducted at treatment, storage, and disposal facilities regulated by Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations Parts 264 and 265 pursuant to RCRA, or by agencies under agreement with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement RCRA regulations
• Emergency response operations for releases of, or substantial threats of releases of, hazardous substances regardless of the location of the hazard

This standard may be a little confusing to some employers so to verify where your employees fall, feel free to reach OSHA at 1-800-321-OSHA (6742).