EPA program aims for improved environmental impacts
EPA has launched Smart Sectors, a partnership program between the agency and regulated sectors focused on achieving better health and environmental outcomes.
Staff will conduct site tours, host roundtables with EPA leadership, analyze data to advise on environmental improvement, maintain open dialogue with business partners and environmental committees, and develop reports of each sector's environmental and economic impact.
Smart Sectors aims to facilitate better communication and streamline operations internally at EPA. Sector leads are able to work across EPA's land, water, air and chemical program offices, as well as with environmental justice, enforcement and compliance assistance, and other offices, including EPA regional offices.
For more information, visit www.epa.gov or call (202) 564-4332.
Study: Most companies collect health, safety data
According to a study by the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program, in conjunction with the Center for Safety and Health Sustainability (CSHS), human capital metrics like occupational safety and health data are collected by a majority of global companies. However, many of these firms do not publicly report the information.
The study's conclusion draws data from a 2016 survey of nearly 2,000 of the largest companies traded on global exchanges. Ninety-six percent of survey respondents disclosed metrics on employee fatalities, while only 17 percent of publicly assessed companies did so.
Firms in Europe generally report human capital metrics more frequently than companies in the Asia-Pacific region, and those in the U.S. often lag far behind.
For more information, visit www.asse.org or www.lwp.law.harvard.edu.
OSHA resumes regular enforcement in Texas, Louisiana after Harvey
OSHA, which had ceased most programmed enforcement actions following Hurricane Harvey, has recently resumed normal enforcement throughout Texas and Louisiana.
After Harvey hit, OSHA provided compliance assistance and outreach to employers and workers in Texas and Louisiana. This enabled OSHA's staff to provide faster, more flexible responses to hazards facing workers involved in cleanup and recovery operations. Thousands of crews and individual workers received job safety and health technical assistance.
"For those areas most heavily impacted by Hurricane Harvey, we will continue to provide employers and workers with compliance assistance and outreach. We will be monitoring these areas closely, and as they transition from cleanup and recovery to normal operations, so will OSHA's enforcement," said OSHA's Region VI Administrator Kelly Knighton.
For more information, visit www.osha.gov or call (800) 321-OSHA [6742].
PHMSA awards grants for hazardous materials training
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is issuing three separate hazardous materials training grants. The grants are part of PHMSA's comprehensive approach to improving the safe transportation of hazardous materials across the U.S.
PHMSA is issuing $20,470,045 in Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) grants to provide funding to states, territories and Native American tribes to enhance the abilities of emergency response personnel when responding to hazardous materials- related transportation incidents. PHMSA is also issuing Assistance for Local Emergency Response Training (ALERT) grants, which offer resources to nonprofits to train volunteer or remote emergency responders.
Finally, PHMSA selected the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance to receive $1 million as part of its Community Safety Training grant program.
For more information, visit www.phmsa.dot.gov or call (202) 366-4831.
AIHA, ASSE pledge to work together for workplace safety, health
The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging to work together to reach common goals.
"We must pool our resources -- people, power, knowledge and skills -- to present a united front against threats to worker health and safety and to promote the field of industrial hygiene," said AIHA President Deborah Imel Nelson.
The two organizations will focus on: working together on issues of mutual interest before federal and relevant state legislative and regulatory entities, developing new standards, promoting and providing exposure for women in safety and industrial hygiene, and advocating for national occupational safety and health research.
For more information, visit www.aiha.org or www.asse.org.