"Out of sight does not mean out of mind when it comes to underground petroleum storage tanks, and it is critical that facilities monitor their tanks and make sure they are not leaking," said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck.
The company's location in Lenexa, Kan., generates hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste as a result of ordinary breakage, leakage, and spillage from the approximate 400,000 packages workers handle at the facility each day, EPA said.
The agency's revised "current intelligence bulletin" for asbestos fibers and other elongate mineral particles explains what NIOSH still wants to explore and also clarifies the 1990 NIOSH recommended exposure limit for airborne asbestos fibers.
Four years of meetings and dialogue among partner agencies have created a network that will move ahead on EU-wide research, if funding support is maintained.
Specifically, OSHA found blocked exits, workers lacking safety glasses and gloves while working with acid, unlabeled containers of hazardous chemicals, unmarked electrical equipment, exposed live electrical parts, and moisture in electrical equipment.
The willful violations cited address the inappropriate location of an air material separator that lacked explosion venting, an inadequate housekeeping program, and allowing combustible dusts to collect at depths greater than one-eighth of an inch.
"From the top down, Fred Weber Inc. has displayed outstanding effort in implementing a comprehensive safety and health management system," said Charles E. Adkins, OSHA's regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo. "The company is an exemplar of workplace safety."
EPA noted that a spill of only one gallon of oil can contaminate one million gallons of water. SPCC regulations require onshore oil production or bulk storage facilities to provide oil spill prevention, preparedness, and responses to prevent such discharges.
The dairy facility and its former owner are the last two of five defendants to settle claims made in a 2008 civil lawsuit accusing the company of violating the Clean Water Act and befouling the Elkhorn River.
A study done for Safe Work Australia also showed that many in the country's trades do not follow standard safety precautions to protect themselves against exposure to asbestos fibers.
A day after President Obama announced $8.33 billion in federal loan guarantees to build and operate two new nuclear reactors, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its report summarizing the nuclear power industry's performance in FY2009.
The California Air Resources Board has decided not to delay the March 1 compliance deadline of its regulation limiting emissions by off-road diesel equipment, which Associated General Contractors, a big construction trade association, warns will be painful for builders in the state.
As part of EPA’s Methane to Markets Grant, the firm will subcontract with the University of Colorado for the project, which will inventory emissions in the gassy, abandoned coal mines in the coal-bearing regions of the Shanxi and Hebei Provinces.
EPA noted this is the seventh year in a multi-year initiative to improve compliance with the construction general permit. The permit authorizes storm water discharges from construction sites, and it requires operators of those sites to design, install, and maintain storm water controls to protect surface waters from common construction site pollutants like sediment, oil and grease, and concrete washout.
The funds from the 2010 Isman Grant will make it possible for the hazmat team to attend the IAFC International Hazardous Materials Response Teams Conference in Baltimore in May 2010.
The certification by Cal/OSHA and federal OSHA followed a three-year safety project at the Clean Harbors facility.
The spill occurred when piping connecting a 13,000 gallon oil tank to a boiler failed and released 8,000 gallons of oil into the facility's secondary containment area.
All three companies were found responsible for the unauthorized discharge of oil field brine into the tributaries of various creeks in Oklahoma and Texas generated by their production activities.
British agencies began a consultation on Feb. 9 to take stakeholders' comments on how to implement it.
This third time is not a charm: Residual nicotine from tobacco smoke that clings to indoor surfaces reacts with the common air pollutant nitrous acid to form dangerous carcinogens.