Wellness Programs that promote
healthy eating, exercise, and community involvement are fairly
common among businesses. But what about programs that promote
emotional well-being?
Wellness is more than physical
fitness. Wellness includes everything: the intellectual, spiritual,
social, occupational, and emotional spheres of health.
But how can businesses and
companies positively influence such tricky things as emotions?
Obviously, emotional well-being
depends heavily upon other health spheres....
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Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) violations can be time consuming to correct,
expensive, and bring a negative light to a company’s overall
reputation. Repeat violations, or willful or knowing violations,
can further compound these issues exponentially. Both agencies view
repeat violations as a company’s indifference to environment and
safety regulations in general and can put you in a high risk
category. In fact, EPA and OSHA have a...
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Join myself and Nicole Collett on
Monday, September 30th at the 2013 National Safety Council Congress
& Expo. We will be presenting "The Great Chicago Fire and Fire
Prevention Plans". Our session #42 is 4:00-5:30pm. The breadth of
important content of our presentation is OSHA's requirements
related to Fire Prevention Plans but to make it interesting, and
given the conference is in Chicago, we thought we'd give a little
history lesson on the Great Chicago Fire.
August
Mack’s presence in the Mid-Atlantic was established in 1994 with
the opening of a Baltimore office. Then in 1998, Susan Burkett
opened the office in southeast Pennsylvania to better serve the
growing client base in Pennsylvania. Susan continues to serve
clients in a corporate capacity as Principal Engineer for August
Mack’s eCAP® Services. In its infancy, the Pennsylvania office
provided environmental, health and safety compliance services to
foundries, food companies, and metal products...
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Over the years, the August Mack
Pennsylvania office has expanded services to include compliance,
environmental due diligence, site investigation, and remediation
services. Similar to the expansion of services, the client
base has expanded and includes a wide variety of industrial and
service industries. Numerous clients were served by the
Pennsylvania office in 2012 and projects included compliance
audits, MSDS database development and maintenance, litigation
support, air permits, MACT...
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March
of 2012, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
published a revision to the Hazard Communication (HAZCOM) standard
(Title 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1910.1200) which
incorporated the requirements of the Globally Harmonized System for
the Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). One of
the changes in the revised HAZCOM standard is that material safety
data sheets (MSDSs) are no longer required. Instead, the
employer is required to maintain safety data...
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Lockout/Tagout
(LOTO) is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
standard (29 CFR 1910.147) that provides all of the requirements
for the isolation of hazardous energy for industrial and research
facilities. According to OSHA, an estimated 120 fatal accidents and
50,000 injuries are avoided each year because employers implement
and enforce comprehensive LOTO programs. For those individuals who
do sustain injuries from exposure to hazardous energy, an average
of 24 days of...
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Don't
forget to
register now for the August Mack webinar tomorrow (Mar. 21) at
10:00 a.m. on "Common Safety and Health Issues in Primary Metal
Industries." According to OSHA, over the last decade Primary Metal
Industries (PMI) has been in the top five manufacturing industries
for fatalities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),
in 2006 the highest incident rates of non-fatal occupational injury
and illness cases indicated that three of the top ten industries
were in PMI and of the...
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With OSHA implementing the GHS
Standard, referred to as "HazCom 2012," it is important to
start planning ahead to get your facility geared up for the
change. The first step is to know the basics. You
should get familiar with the 16-section Safety Data Sheet (SDS)
format, which will replace the previous Material Safety Data Sheet
(MSDS) format. You should also become familiar with the new
label pictograms and key deadlines for providing training to
employees.
Need help getting geared up?...
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Process
Safety Management (PSM) 29 CFR 1910.119 is a regulation promulgated
by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to
prevent the accidental release of hazardous chemicals that could
result in catastrophic fires, explosions or toxic exposure.
Facilities that store materials included on the Highly
Hazardous Chemical (HHC) list (Appendix A of the standard) in
excess of associated thresholds are applicable to the PSM standard.
The regulation also applies to flammable liquids...
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A non-mandatory technical amendment taking
effect Jan. 22 explains the basics of ensuring safe operations and
discusses the roles of the chemical hygiene officer and others.
OSHA is has
issued a technical amendment to the non-mandatory appendix in
its standard on occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals in
laboratories, 1910.1450, which is known as the OSHA Laboratory
Standard. Published Jan. 22 in the Federal Register, the
amendment takes effect upon publication. It was made in order...
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In
September 2008, August Mack’s eCAP® (Compliance Assurance Program)
was formally qualified as a Supplemental Environmental Project
(SEP) through the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Region 7. August Mack’s eCAP® program is an
Environmental Health and Safety Management System (EMS) that
utilizes a team of August Mack experts to routinely and
methodically assess and maintain compliance at clients’ facilities.
The innovative program includes much more than just...
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OSHA has issued a technical amendment to the non-mandatory
appendix in its standard on occupational exposure to chemicals in
laboratories. The amendment says a lab's Chemical
Hygiene Plan must be readily available to workers and should
include these topics:
- Individual chemical hygiene responsibilities
- Standard operating procedures
- Personal protective equipment, engineering controls and
apparel
- Laboratory equipment
- Safety equipment/
- Chemical management
- Housekeeping
- Emergency procedures for accidents and...
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Don't
forget to
register now for the August Mack webinar tomorrow (Jan. 31) at
10:00 a.m. This webinar will review the changes to the OSHA Hazard
Communication standard (29 CFR 1910.12000) which were promulgated
in March of 2012 to incorporate the Globally Harmonized System of
Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). This includes new
requirements for determining the hazard classification of
chemicals, changes to container labels incorporating pictograms and
signal words, changes to...
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On
Thursday March 21st at 10:00 a.m. August Mack will present a free
webinar on "Common Safety and Health Issues in Primary Metal
Industries."
Register here to attend. According to OSHA, over the last
decade Primary Metal Industries (PMI) has been in the top five
manufacturing industries for fatalities. According to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2006 the highest incident rates of
non-fatal occupational injury and illness cases indicated that
three of the top ten industries were in...
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As
we end our historical safety milestone blog post series, here are
several milestones that are fairly recent considering when we
first started this series we were discussing things from the late
1800's.
In 2007 OSHA requires employers to
pay for safety equipment, including earplugs, respirators, and
protective gloves.
Just last year, the National Safety
Council launches the Campbell Institute to foster a healthy and
high-performing workforce around the globe.
Seems just like yesterday but all of these safety milestones of
the 1990's are well over ten years old with the Bloodborne
Pathogens standard being introduced over 20 years.
1991 - OSHA creates the Bloodborne Pathogens standard to protect
workers from HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B.
1993 - OSHA issues standards for confined spaces to reduce
injuries for workers who enter confined spaces.
1996 - OSHA issues construction scaffold safety standards to
protect construction workers.
1997 - OSHA strengthens...
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Register
now to attend the free January 17th webinar on PSM: The 14
Elements and How They Apply to Your Facility. Process Safety
Management (PSM) is detailed in OSHA regulation 29 CFR 1910.119,
which is applicable to facilities storing greater than 10,000
pounds of flammable material or facilities storing materials in
various quantities that are included on the Highly Hazardous
Chemicals (HHC) list. This webinar will provide an overview of the
14 plan elements required under 29 CFR 1910 as well...
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Employees
have the right to a safe workplace. Employers have a responsibility
to provide a safe work environment. The Occupational Safety and
Health Act of 1970 was passed to prevent workers from being killed
or seriously harmed at work. The law requires that employers
provide their employees with working conditions free of known
dangers. The Act created the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA), which sets and enforces protective workplace
safety and health standards. Several of...
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In 1981 OSHA issues Hearing
Conversation Standards to provide hearing protection.
In 1984 the Bhopal Disaster kills
3800 people, leads to Community Awareness and Emergency Response
Program formation and new OSHA chemical plant guidelines.
In 1988 OSHA introduces safety
guidelines for meatpacking workers.