With the new year comes new maximum penalty amounts for safety violations leveled by OSHA, due to an annual adjustment for inflation.
Here are the maximum penalty amounts that may now be assessed by the agency (as of Jan. 15, 2020.)
The wildfires raging through Australia are stark reminders that other parts of the world – including the U.S. – are also at risk, due to factors related to climate change, like warmer temperatures and drier conditions that lengthen the wildfire season and help a fire spread once it’s ignited.
Even if your home or place of employment is not directly threatened by flames, you could be affected by the smoke from wildfires that are burning many miles away.
The EPA started the new year off with a move it says will ultimately reduce the emissions of gases that contribute heavily to air pollution, including the formation of smog and acid rain.
On January 6, 2020, the agency issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rule (ANPR) soliciting pre-proposal comments on the Cleaner Trucks Initiative (CTI).
Hours of service regulations for truckers, workplace violence prevention and hazardous materials that endanger bees and people were among the top regulatory stories during 2019.
Air pollution is known to be a serious health risk –a cause of asthma, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and a factor, according to the World Health Organization, in an estimated seven million deaths worldwide every year. A growing body of research suggests air pollution may also be harming our brains.
In recent years, new areas of study have opened up into how air pollution might affect our minds and the way we think and feel.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board's (CSB) is inviting comment on its just-issued Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding accidental release reporting.
The proposed rule describes when an owner or operator is required to file a report of an accidental release and the required content of such a report and is intended to ensure that the CSB receives rapid, accurate reports of any accidental release that meets established statutory criteria.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) has published a significantly updated version of a safety standard that provides guidance for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving a safety and environmental management system (SEMS) for offshore operations.
The EPA said yesterday that it will not impose new financial responsibility requirements for the petroleum and coal products manufacturing industry (the industrial sector that transforms crude petroleum and coal into usable products) “because the financial risk to the federal government from those facilities is already addressed by various existing federal and state technical and financial requirements and modern material management practices.”
Our green story.
Responsibility is a major part of the Mount Vernon FR business model—responsibility to protect both our customers and the environment:
Mount Vernon FR recycles water used in production processes through our boiler, so that we are wasting less and conserving more.
Integrating autonomous vehicle policies into your fleet safety management systems; a restaurant manager dies from a toxic mix of cleaning chemicals and no U.S. mine earns Pattern of Violation status. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.