Workplace wellness programs in various forms have been around since about the late 1970s. Many employers view these programs as an employee “benefit”. However, successful wellness programs have been found to be a factor in identifying and preventing chronic illnesses while also promoting a culture of wellness in the workplace. The RAND report 1, one of the first comprehensive research survey studies into the effectiveness of these programs, found in 2010 that about half of U.S. employers of 50 or more employees had some sort of workplace wellness program. Most center around screening, chronic illness “intervention”, and disease prevention. Primary prevention includes “lifestyle management” (i.e., diet and exercise); secondary prevention includes chronic disease management (i.e., adherence to prescribed medications).
Category: HETI Horizons Newsletters
Pesticides: Controlling Risks To People And The Environment
Pesticides are substances or mixtures of substances intended for preventing, destroying or repelling an undesirable plant, animal or microorganism. Some of the most common pesticides include herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and rodenticides. Over the centuries, naturally-occurring elements were used as pesticides; but starting in the 1930’s, chemical synthesis advances allowed for the development of synthetic pesticides. After World War II, several synthetic pesticides, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) were introduced and used extensively in the agricultural environment. At that time, the development and effectiveness of synthetic pesticides were so important that the chemist who developed DDT was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1948 for combating hunger. Pesticide development has progressed since those initial discoveries; however exposure to this group of chemicals is still a significant hazard to humans. [Note: The use of DDT is now banned globally under the Stockholm Convention of 2001, because it persists in the environment and becomes concentrated in animals at the top of the food chain.] Continue Reading →
Combustible Dust Explosion Hazards: Lurking Dangers, Mitigation Measures & The September 2020 Compliance Deadline
Combustible dust generation and accumulation should be considered a potentially serious hazard and a very significant threat to a great many industries and facilities. Excessive, improperly managed dust accumulations are literal powder kegs – readily capable of exploding and causing large-scale loss of life and catastrophic damages, including the destruction of entire buildings. According to a 2018 report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, there were 105 combustible dust explosion incidents throughout the United States between 2006 and 2017 – resulting in 59 fatalities and 303 injuries along with extensive damage. In fact, there was a reported annual average of 28 dust explosion incidents, with 24 injuries and four fatalities over the past two years. In most of these incidents, employers and employees were unaware that a hazard even existed.
Mercury: An Introduction To EHS Issues And Regulations
Do you remember playing with mercury from a broken thermometer as a child – rubbing it on pennies and your skin? The element Mercury, or “quicksilver”, is a dense, grey, lustrous liquid metal at room temperature. Mercury also exists as organic and inorganic chemical compounds. It is a natural occurring element found in geologic seams of its main ore, a red sulfide mineral called Cinnabar. Elemental mercury is also found in the atmosphere and may come from man-made sources (coal-fired power plants and industrial processes) or natural sources (volcanoes, forest fires and ocean emissions).
ISO 45001: The New “Standard” For OHS Management Systems
Past editions of HETI Horizons have discussed the elements contained within a combined Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Management System – based upon the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 Standard for environmental management systems and the old guidance on occupational health & safety management systems contained within the British Occupational Health & Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001. OHSAS 18001 has been superseded with the publication of ISO 45001 (Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems) in March 2018. In this newsletter, we look at the major similarities and differences between OHSAS 18001 and the updated ISO 45001. Continue Reading →
Health & Safety In The Cannabis Cultivation Workplace
Humans have been using cannabis or cannabis products for thousands of years.1 A recent Pew Research Center study indicated that more than six in ten Americans support legalization of marijuana. This level of support has more than doubled since 2000 and has led to a corresponding increase in the number of states that allow the use of medical and/or recreational marijuana.2 Currently, 33 states and the District of Columbia permit such use and many of the states allow marijuana cultivation on a commercial scale.3
This has promoted an entirely new industry – with job descriptions that include cultivator, trimmer, bud tender and extraction technician.4 These positions require close contact with plants throughout their growth and maturation. Cultivation of marijuana can range from a small “closet” operation to facilities as large as twenty football fields employing hundreds of workers. Continue Reading →
Acid Mine Drainage: Hazards, Mitigation Measures & Oddities at an USEPA Superfund Site
Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal or coal mines. Mining activities typically involve large-scale earth disturbances, usually within rocks containing an abundance of sulfide materials. When surface water and/or groundwater come in contact with these pyritic rocks, along with air, oxidation of the sulfides occurs – generating acidic metal-bearing AMD. The pH of AMD can be extremely low (yes…negative pH levels are possible, as described below) – equivalent to or less than sulfuric acid.
Liquids that drain from coal stockpiles, coal washeries, and coal waste tips can be highly acidic; and this liquid effluent is analogous to AMD. In addition, other large earth-disturbing activities – such as construction sites, subdivision projects, and transportation projects – may create acid rock drainage (ARD). Continue Reading →
Sediment As A “Pollutant”
Use free word association for “pollutant” and the first several things that probably come to mind are “lead”, “petroleum”, “PCBs” or “dioxins”. Or use the Clean Air Act definition for the six most common pollutants and you might associate pollutant with smog, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, or lead. How you slice it does not matter. A pollutant is simply something that is unwanted and not originally present in the environment that might cause adverse damages. Sediment is usually not thought of as a pollutant and doesn’t make the list. However, more and more sediment is being tendered on environmental insurance claims and causing potential high exposure to pollution-based policies for cleanup. With or without commingled contamination, sediment can still cause devastating damages as it makes its way to rivers, lakes, wetlands and oceans.
EPA Revisions To Underground Storage Tank Regulations
Major revisions to the federal underground storage tank (UST) regulations, proposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in 2013, were finalized and became effective on October 13, 2015 (40 CFR Parts 280 & 281). The EPA sought to strengthen regulations that were first implemented in 1988 – to include current technologies and advancements in UST systems that allow improved release prevention, detection and containment. The revisions were also implemented to further protect groundwater by improving early detection and release prevention and to ensure that all USTs in the country, including Indian Lands, meet the same minimum standards.
NFPA Standard For Electrical Safety
The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA’s) consensus standard for employees working in and around live electrical circuits – NFPA 70E – was developed to protect these workers from potentially lethal or disfiguring injuries related to mishaps. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that there were nearly 6,000 fatal electrical injuries to workers in the U.S. between 1992 and 2013. BLS data also shows that there were 24,100 non-fatal electrical injuries from 2003 through 2012.1 Employees are injured from contact with open electric circuits, improper shields, and exposure to dangerous arc flash. A rapid release of energy during an arcing fault between two electrical conductors is sustained by the establishment of a highly conductive plasma, which results in the release of deadly shrapnel and molten metal.