PACNY's Environmental Conference Is Back!! Counting Down The Days to March 3 and March 4, 2022!!!

The Professional Abatement Contractors of New York (PACNY) have announced the dates for their annual Environmental Conference to be held on March 3rd and 4th, 2022.  It will be held at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.  Visit Turning Stone Casino's website for pandemic questions.  To register for the conference or sponsor the conference click here!

Return of New York State Department of Labor Panel

Obviously, due to the pandemic, last year's conference was not held.  This year's conference goes back to the original format of two days - Thursday & Half-day Friday.  Thursday is usually the Professional Day and we're looking forward to the following presentations: a presentation by a New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) Inspector by Elizabeth Kirkland;  The Evolving Role of the NYS Project Monitor, and a roundtable discussion by PACNY experts on mold, that will include Jack Springston of ATC.  PACNY has asked us, (Angelo Garcia, III's, of Future Environment Designs, Inc. (FEDTC)), to speak and we will be presenting on the "Trials and Tribulations of Training During a Pandemic".  We hope our presentation will be an entertaining look into trying to maintain a training program during a pandemic.  We would like to thank Ms. Karen Cummings, M.P.H., Director of the New York State Department of Health's (NYSDOH) Asbestos Safety Training Program for providing us with data for our presentation regarding the number of asbestos training certificates issued during the last four years.  We would also like to thank Mr. Chek Beng Ng, P.E., Professional Engineer, of the NYSDOL Engineering Services Unit, for also providing us with the mold training data, since 2015, for our presentation.  With this information, it will be interesting to see the impact the pandemic had on training and in extension on the available workforce.   After the last presentation, we will head over to the Exhibition Hall with the Vendors/Sponsors of the conference and network with the attendees at the open bar.  Yes, that's right Happy Hour is back! 

Happy Hour At the Exhibition Hall

FEDTC is one of the sponsors of the conference again and will have a booth in the Exhibition Hall.  Ms. Sheryl Esposito is returning to be the woman at the booth.  Come by and say hello!  As we have in the past, we will be tweeting the conference.  To follow the conference on Twitter, you can search for the hashtag #FEDTCPACNY or you can follow on our Twitter account at https://twitter.com/angelogarcia3. 

  

Sheryl Esposito at the FEDTC Booth

Half-day Friday is Regulatory Day with the NYSDOL's Asbestos Control Bureau usually doing a brief presentation and then doing a questions and answers session.  One question certain to be asked will be when will the Fast Track Variances return?  Mr. Ed Smith, P.E., Program Manager of the NYSDOL Engineering Services Unit will be expected to answer that question.  This year we will have new people on the podium.  Dr. Eileen Franco has retired and the new director is Amy Phillips.  Mr. Kirk Fisher takes over for Mr. James Meacham, P.E. as head of the Enforcement Unit.  This ponders the question of who takes over the Licensing and Certification Unit?  Mr. Paul Demick, Associate Safety & Health Inspector, will be on the podium for the NYSDOL License & Certificate Unit.    Lunch on Friday is the last meal of the conference and the last chance to network with the attendees.  It will be good to get back to Turning Stone and see all our friends and business associates, again.  Hoping to see you there!

The Annual Increase of OSHA Penalties Goes Into Effect!

On January 13, 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced (click here for the announcement) effective January 15, 2022, in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 and several amendments that they are making the annual adjustments for inflation as required by those laws.  

The cost-of-living adjustment multiplier for 2022, based on the Consumer Price Index for October 2021 is 1.06222.  In computing the 2022 adjustment, OSHA multiplied the most recent penalty amount for each applicable penalty by the multiplier and then rounded to the nearest dollar.  

Serious Violation Penalties (per violation)       

    Minimum $1,036        Maximum $14,502

Other-Than-Serious Penalties (per violation)

    Minimum $0               Maximum $14,502

Willful or Repeat Penalties (per violation)    

     Minimum $10,360*    Maximum $145,027   

Posting Requirements (per violation)

    Minimum $0                Maximum $14,502

Failure to Abate (per day unabated beyond the abatement date, max. 30-days) $14,502

*For a repeated other-than-serious violation that otherwise would have no initial penalty a Gravity Based Penalty (GBP) of $414 shall be proposed for the first repeat violation, $1,036 for the second repeated violation, and $2,072 for a third repetition.              

This serious violation would cost the employer between $1,036 and $14,502

OSHA increased its penalties on August 1, 2016, the link to our previous blog post discussing the initial increase that started this annual process to increase fines is here.  OSHA will continue to do penalty reductions based on the size of the employer and other factors.  The OSHA January 13, 2022 enforcement memo details the penalty increase, minimum penalties, gravity-based penalty amounts, and serious willful penalty reductions.  In addition, OSHA's website provides information and guidance to employers on debt collection activity.  The site is designed to help employers pay their debts with OSHA click here to visit the site.

Wishing You a Joyous and Merry Holidays and a Happy New Year! Future Environment Designs Opening a New Center!

Future Environment Designs Training Center (#FEDTC) wishes you and your family a Merry Holidays and a Happy New Year.  As we say goodbye to 2021 and the improvements of our business from 2020, we are especially excited about entering 2022.  We are excited to announce some changes that will expand our capabilities and we are hiring trainers to help with the expansion into our new training facility in Jamaica, New York.  So keep an eye out for the where the classes are being held, we will still be training in Syosset and at your convenience.  We will be increasing the number of initial classes we offer, since the new facility has a full hands-on area.  We will also be expanding our Spanish language offerings over the next few months.  Mr. Ramon De Los Santos who is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Outreach Training Instructor has over 15 years of construction experience in road construction safety.  Mr. De Los Santos is bilingual and speaks English and Spanish fluently.  #FEDTC will be adding Spanish OSHA 10-hour & 30-hour construction safety courses to our schedule, more frequently this year.  To take advantage of hs capabilities.  

Remember we are still providing several discounts including our loyalty discount at 25%, our Safety Suzy Newsletter Discount, and our Blog Discount (FEDTCBlog15).  Please take full advantage of these discounts when you register for the courses.  As we discussed, in December's Safety Suzy Newsletter, New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) starting January 1, 2022 is increasing the certificate fee from $12 to $30 for refreshers and from $20 to $50 for initials.  So you will see a price increase for all our asbestos classes for 2022.  We are sorry for the increase especially considering the other inflationary pressures out there but even with those pressures we have only increased the prices to cover this fee increase.

Since the pandemic started we have added new on-demand/e-learn courses to our catalog.  Our catalog now includes asbestos awareness, a 4-hour Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) bloodborne pathogen, AHERA designated person, OSHA hazard communication, OSHA hazard communication course including New York State Deaprtment of Labor (NYSDOL) Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) requirements, New York City Departent of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) exam prep for handlers/supervisors and investigators, Silica in construction, Mold in construction, and Lead in construction courses.  To register for this course or any of our on-demand/e-learning courses visit FEDTC's online training website.     

Mold Class

We are looking forward to seeing all of you in 2022.  We so excited about the changes and opportunities coming our way.  Again, we wish you & your family a Merry Holidays and a Happy New Year!!!

Future Environment Designs Training Center Celebrates Veterans Day

Today we honor our Veterans who served in the military.  Veteran's Day coincides with Armistice Day and Remembrance Day which are celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I.  Major hostilities of World War I were ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.  At that time the Armistice with Germany went into effect.  United States veteran organizations urged that Armistice Day be renamed Veterans Day in 1954 and since then we have celebrated it as Veterans Day.  

Future Environment Designs Training Center would like to thank all those who have served and helped to protect our country in our hours of need!  Thank you for your service!

New Head of OSHA Confirmed by the U.S. Senate! Doug Parker Will Take the Reins!

 It only took the United States Senate 1747 days to confirm a new head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).  OSHA has been without a head since January 2017.  President Joseph Biden nominated Mr. Doug Parker on April 9, 2021, and the Senate confirmed him on October 25, 2021.  We have to remember that former President Donald Trunp nominated Scott Mugno in October 2017, but Mr. Mugno withdrew in May 2019 after waiting for 19 months for the Senate to confirm him.

Mr. Doug Parker, Assistant Secertary to OSHA

Mr. Parker had his Senate confirmation hearing held on May 27.  Obviously, many of the questions posed to Mr. Parker were related to the pandemic and the soon to be released OSHA emergency temporary standard regarding protecting workers from COVID-19 for General Industry.

Mr. Parker has served as the head of California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CAL/OSHA) since September 2019.  In his confirmation hearing he defended CAL/OSHA's emergency temporary standard on COVID-19 and strongly defended OSHA's plans for a new emergency temporary standard.  Currently, OSHA's emergency temporary standard for COVID-19 only applies to healthcare and healthcare support service workers.

OSHA is 50 Years Old

It is obvious from his experince at CAL/OSHA and other similar safety-related organizations he has the skill set and leadership abilities to be the new head at OSHA.

Should We Be Wearing Better Masks? The Best Face Covering Is The One That Is Worn Properly & Used!

We recently read two articles in The Atlantic called "Why Are Americans Still - Still! - Wearing Cloth Masks?" and "Why Aren't We Wearing Better Masks?" and another in Scientific American called "Why We Need to Upgrade Our Face Masks - and Where to Get Them".  All three articles discuss why Americans are still wearing cloth face-coverings now that N95 respirators (or the KN95 respirators, these respirators are made in China and are not approved by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)) are more readily available (The NIOSH Science Blog discusses the roles NIOSH, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) play regarding respiratory protection).  The articles mention a new study not peer-reviewed yet from Bangladesh which claims that wearing surgical masks decrease COVID-19 symptoms and antibodies by 11.2 percent, while cloth masks only led to a 5 percent decrease.  It proceeds to give several reasons why we continue to use face-coverings from public-health agencies not prioritizing surgical masks and N95 respirators to price to supporting one's sports team.  Two of the articles describe how face-coverings are far better than nothing and also saying how cloth masks are more eco-friendly (The Covid Crisis Is Now a Garbage Crisis, Too) giving face-coverings a backhanded credit for helping when nothing else was available.  The articles, in my opinion, even support the notion that we should be buying KN95 respirators even though they are not approved by NIOSH.  If anything shouldn't we be buying American-made N95 respirators so we can increase the demand and hence increase the supply of masks that are made here?  This was the subject of a New York Times article "Can't Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30 Million That It Can't Sell" and the Washington Post article "In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America."

Two suppliers of N95 respirators

Let us first say as a person, who believes in the use of respirators and their importance in protecting individuals from exposure to hazardous substances (see all our posts regarding 9/11), we agree that N95 respirators or surgical masks would protect people better from SARS-CoV-2 than cloth face-coverings if worn correctly.  However, we would need to be able to provide each person N95 respirators (in their size either small, medium, or large) or surgical masks, make sure they had a sufficient supply to meet their needs, make sure the N95 respirator fits each person, make sure they understand how to wear the N95 respirator or surgical masks correctly, and finally, they are provided a means of disposal for the respirators or the surgical masks.  As you can imagine that would be a significant cost to the government (or tax-payers) and would require a significant undertaking to make sure every American would be protected by using N95 respirators or surgical masks.  Meanwhile, the biggest issue is whether we are talking N95 respirators, surgical masks, or face coverings they must be worn correctly to protect you, and remember facial hair reduces the effectiveness of all these face coverings.  See the chart below for various ways of improperly using face coverings.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website "Types of Masks and Respirators" was updated as of September 23, 2021, and provides information on types of masks and when to wear them and now includes a section on considerations for children.

Both these articles treat surgical masks and N95 respirators as simple items to wear and that anyone can wear them.  However, this is not a fact as we mentioned above N95 respirators require medical clearance, fit testing, and training all mandated by OSHA for individuals that are required to wear them.  As for surgical masks, we have to remember the ones that are typically sold to the public aren't actually surgical masks.  Surgical masks are cleared by the FDA, see the chart below for the difference between the N95 respirators and surgical masks.  Note that surgical masks do not provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles.  This is for FDA-cleared surgical masks, which means the ones the public purchases probably aren't reliable either considering they are not cleared by FDA.

Surgical Masks vs N95 respirators

However, the use of cloth face-coverings has been shown to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets (source control) and help reduce inhalation of these droplets.  The CDC website "Use of Cloth Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2" which was last updated on May 7, 2021, provides some significant research on how the use of cloth face-coverings block the transmission of respiratory droplets with some face-coverings performing on par with surgical masks as barriers for source control.  In the section "Human Studies of Masking and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission" data regarding the "real-world" effectiveness of community masking is limited to observational and epidemiological studies with many of these showing significant levels of protection from wearing face coverings.  An example of one of these was "A study of an outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an environment notable for congregate living quarters and close working environments, found that use of face coverings on-board was associated with a 70% reduced risk of transmission.

Note the circled area of the package (which means they are not surgical masks). 

It is our opinion, one of the main reasons face-coverings are better is because they are easier to use, easier to breathe through, light-weight, and because of these things more likely to be used and used correctly.  Wearing the face-covering correctly and using the face covering is what is helping reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2.  So follow the CDC guidelines on when to use face-coverings and let's stop the spread!

Related Articles:

Filtering Facepiece Respirator or a Dust Mask or N95 Respirator versus a Surgical Mask

Governor Cuomo Announces Schools Can Open. Can They or Should They?

September 5 is N95 Day - Whaaaaat??

Future Environment Designs Wishes You a Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Future Environment Designs (FEDTC) wishes everyone a Happy Labor Day weekend!  In a year that seems to continue to challenge all of us, it is worthwhile to remember that this weekend and Monday in particular we are celebrating the contributions of the labor movement to the development and achievements of the United States of America (USA).  

Labor Movement in the 21st Century

The labor movement is a major part of American history that describes the history of organized labor, USA labor law, and the more general history of working people.  According to Wikipedia, "the nature and power of organized labor are the outcomes of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions."  As commentator E. J. Dionne has noted, the union movement has traditionally espoused a set of values - solidarity being the most important, the sense that each should look out for the interests of all.

The Fire that Sparked the Labor Movement

Future Environment Designs hopes as we enjoy this weekend, we remember the importance of the labor movement and even more importantly we remember solidarity, the sense that each of us should look out for the interests of all!