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Sunday, November 01, 2009

National Safety Council: OSHA’s Top 10 Most Cited Violations | EHS Today



At the National Safety Council's annual meeting in Orlando, OSHA unveiled its list of OSHA’s Top 10 Most Cited Violations EHS Today reported.  They are:
  1. Scaffolding, General – 9,093 violations
  2. Fall Protection – 6,771 violations
  3. Hazard Communication – 6,378 violations
  4. Respiratory Protection – 3,803 violations
  5. Lockout/Tagout – 3,321 violations
  6. Electrical, Wiring – 3,079 violations
  7. Ladders – 3,072 violations
  8. Powered Industrial Trucks – 2,993 violations
  9. Electrical, General – 2,556 violations
  10. Machine Guarding – 2,364 violations
Items 3, 4, & 5 on the list are easy to resolve, though most companies are ignoring these safety hazards.  Contact us and we can help you avoid these violations.

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Friday, October 30, 2009

CDC Reports on Insufficient Rest or Sleep Among Adults

they sleep like each otherImage by driki via Flickr
The information below was recently published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):

"An estimated 50-70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders. Sleep disorders and sleep loss have been associated with mental distress, depression, anxiety, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and certain risk behaviors including cigarette smoking, physical inactivity and heavy drinking. A new report from the CDC found that data collected from adults in all 50 United States, DC, and 3 U.S. territories found that 1 in 3 adults (30.7 percent) in 2008, reported no days of not getting enough rest or sleep in the past 30-days. However, 1 in 10 adults (11.1 percent) reported not getting enough rest or sleep everyday during the past month. Females (12.4 percent) were more likely than males (9.9 percent) and non-Hispanic blacks (13.3 percent) were more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to report not getting enough rest or sleep. State estimates of 30 days of insufficient rest or sleep ranged from 7.4 percent in North Dakota to 19.3 percent in West Virginia."


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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Environmental Protection Online Salary Survey

Visit Environmental Protection Online and take the 2009 Salary Survey.  Obviously the more participation Environmental Protection gets with this type of survey, the better information they will produce and we can get a better picture of the industry we are in. 
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Sunday, October 18, 2009

NYC DEP Revisions to Title 15 - Asbestos Regulations, Part 1


The Autumn issue of Future Focus is now posted on our website. In Part 1 we cover the revisions in the permitting process for the NYC Department of Buildings, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, and NYC Fire Department. Most of these changes and revisions attributable to the Deutsche Bank Fire. Click on the title of this post and it will take you to Future Environment Designs newsletter page.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

NYC DEP New Asbestos Regulations Go Into Effect

New York City Department of Environmental Protection's Asbestos regulations have been promulgated. The new asbestos regulations go into effect October 13, 2009 and the full regulations go into effect November 13, 2009. Visit the NYC DEP website to get a copy of the new asbestos regulations. Once we have read through it we will write a post for this blog and an article in our next newsletter on the new regulation.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Mayor Bloomberg Signs Legislation Impacting Asbestos Projects in NYC


On June 29, 2009, Mayor Bloomberg signed several pieces of legislation (introductory numbers 1001-A, 1002, 1003-A, 1005 & 1007) that will impact asbestos abatement projects in New York City (NYC). The legislation and what they regulate include:
  • 1001-A - prohibits smoking on any floor where asbestos abatement activity is taking place. The regulation also prohibits tobacco, lighters, and matches at asbestos abatement work sites.

  • 1002 - prohibits smoking at construction sites.

  • 1003-A - establishes a permitting requirement for asbestos abatement jobs that pose the greatest risk to the safety of workers, first responders and the general public.

  • 1003-A - a. creates a NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) office (Asbestos Technical Review Unit (A-TRU)) to review and permit significant abatement projects.

  • 1003-A - b. NYC Fire Department will receive automatic notification for all jobs requiring a permit and will dispatch the local fire company to inspect the site.

  • 1003-A - c. authorizes the NYC Fire Department to delegate to the NYC DEP authority to enforce the fire codes at abatement sites, so that NYC DEP inspector can issue violations for dangerous conditions.

  • 1005 - requires NYC DEP to promulgate rules giving guidance to contractors on how to maintain safe abatement project sites. NYC DEP, NYC Department of Building (NYC DOB), and Fire Department of NY (FDNY), in collaboration with the Office of Operations, have developed new rules that will soon be promulgated to strengthen safety at abatement jobs.

  • 1007 - requires NYC DEP, FDNY, and NYC DOB to establish a procedure to share information regarding violations issued as a result of building inspections that meet agreed-upon criteria.

Chrysotile Asbestos Banned? More Like Certain Conditions of Use Will Be Eventually Banned!

Many of you, as did I, read about the " Ban of Chrysotile Asbestos " and rejoiced over something long overdue.  However, after rea...