It’s been more than eight years since we reported on the health & safety and risk management issues related to spray polyurethane foams. So, we decided to re-visit the HETI Horizons we published in November 2013 – updating, as appropriate, based on we what we know today.

One of the cutting-edge advances in new construction was the use of spray polyurethane foam insulation for energy conservation. Although the chemistry has been around since the 1940s, the past twenty years have seen the application expand in commercial buildings and high-end homes. The use of spray foam is likely to reach $2.1 billion by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 5%.

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In April 2022, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its final plan for regulation of perchlorate in drinking water. The plan formalizes the agency’s withdrawal of its 2011 decision to promulgate a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for perchlorate, and announces actions that will be taken to minimize perchlorate impacts in the future. Continue Reading →

Crystalline silica is a common mineral found in the earth’s crust. Materials like sand, stone, concrete, and mortar contain crystalline silica. It is also used to make products such as glass, pottery, ceramics, bricks, and artificial stone. Respirable crystalline silica – very small particles at least 100 times smaller than ordinary sand found on beaches and playgrounds – is created when cutting, sawing, grinding, drilling, and crushing stone, rock, concrete, brick, block, and mortar.

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For many years, offices were designed to be “open” to facilitate better internal communication. Large areas of cubicle “farms” – row after row of desks partitioned with five-foot-high walls with fabric covers – were the norm. However after leaning toward this open workplace style for quite some time, architects and building owners are now “all in” on changing that basic design due to COVID-19.

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In November 2021, many news outlets carried the story of the landslide in Washington state that caused elevated asbestos levels by dumping sediment containing naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) into the waterways of Swift Creek downstream from Sumas Mountain. The state’s ecology department warned that it could be especially dangerous during the summertime when the sediment dried and asbestos could be aerosolized by winds and inhaled by people visiting the area.

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The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has released the “Top Ten List” for Fiscal Year 2021, providing the data for the first full year of reporting violations since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While the pandemic has introduced much uncertainty into our lives, we can still rely on Fall Protection–General Requirements topping this list…now for the 11^th consecutive year.

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During the last two decades, the oil & gas industry has experienced significant swings in petroleum hydrocarbon drilling and production. Technological advances – including horizontal drilling capabilities and widespread hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) of shales – have greatly expanded domestic oil & gas exploration and production.

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Inorganic lead is a malleable, blue-gray, heavy metal that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust. Lead was one of the first metals used by humans and consequently the cause of the first recorded occupational disease (lead colic in a 4th Century BC metal worker). When absorbed, it can be stored in human bones, blood and tissues. And, as we age, bones demineralize and the internal exposures may increase as a result of larger releases of lead from the bone tissue. Continue Reading →

According to MarketWatch’s September 15, 2021 press release, the size of the global chromated copper arsenate (CCA) market will decrease to $53 million US by 2026 – down from $58 million this year. While CCA preservative was voluntarily withdrawn by manufacturers for residential use in the United States in 2003, it is still in high demand for treating wood and lumber used in industrial settings and agricultural applications. Continue Reading →

It wasn’t the first time I was stuck behind a Tesla Model S in traffic searching for its tailpipe. I know it doesn’t have one; but that doesn’t stop me from searching for it, as if the Tesla engineers cleverly hid it away from prying eyes. No tailpipe means the absence of harmful exhaust emissions which contain greenhouse gases. Nothing, except frictional kinetic energy from braking; but even most of that is captured by the regenerative braking system and converted into chemical energy to the battery. Whether you’re a fan or not, the global vehicle electrification has emerged in the past decade as a challenge to the internal combustion engine. A Bloomberg survey suggests electric vehicle sales will hit 41 million by 2040 – representing 35% of all light-duty vehicle sales. Continue Reading →