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Thursday, February 07, 2019

Countdown to PACNY's 23rd Annual Environmental Conference Begins!

It's that time again!  If you haven't registered to attend the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY's) 23rd Annual Environmental Conference, its time to do so (It is only 21 days away, from this posting).  The Conference will be held on February 27, 28, and March 1, 2019, at the Turning Stone Casino & Resort in Verona, NY.  This three-day conference, as usual, will include the Wednesday Proficiency Day with the PACNY President's Reception, the Thursday Technical Sessions with the Vendor Hall, and the Vendor Cocktail Party, and completing Friday with the Regulatory Session including a panel from New York State Department of Labor and lunch.  Registration and sponsorship information can be found here.


It all begins on Wednesday, February 27, 2019, at 12:30 PM with a presentation from Ms. Karen Cummings, M.P.H., New York State Department of Health's (NYSDOH's) Director of the Asbestos Safety Training Program.  Her presentation will update us on the status of asbestos training in NYS.  Along with some failings of training providers.  It will continue with presentations from Pete Delucia & Gregg Mance, both of AAC Contracting and myself, Angelo Garcia, III, of Future Environment Designs (#FEDTC), discussing asbestos inspection requirements, and polling of the audience to make this presentation interactive.  Finishing the session will be a presentation of the amendments to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYDEP's) Title 15 Asbestos Regulations (NYCDEP has been invited to present by teleconference).  We have also submitted the information regarding this day of the conference to the Practicing Institute of Engineering (PIE) for the purpose of being able to award three (3) Professional Development Hours (PDH) to the attendees. The President's Reception is later that evening.


The second day will include presentations by Ms. Sue Rossi, of Waste Management, discussing "Waste Management NY Landfills with acceptance of waste streams"; Adam Schrader of Ecospect with George Schanbach, of NYS AARST, discussing Radon and DOH Regulations Update"; Brian Sampson, of Unshackle Upstate, discussing Albany 2019 What You Need to Know and How it Will Impact Your Business"; Mike Rubin Esq., Partner at Goldberg Segalla, discussing "Best Practices for Abatement Contractors"; Mike Waller, of Rochester Regional Health, discussing "Sustainability?solutions and How to Balance"; and a representative of EIA discussing the "TSCA Update".  The vendor reception/networking will follow the presentations on Thursday.

NYSDOL Panel 2018
The final day will be Friday morning with a Lead (Pb) panel discussion followed by the NYSDOL panel discussion.  Friday ends with lunch and few stragglers discussing the week in review.

Sheryl Esposito Will Be Back at the FEDTC booth this year!
 #FEDTC will have a booth, again, this year and Ms. Sheryl Esposito will be womaning the booth.  We will also have the book I wrote "Do As I Say, Not As I Did! What I've Learned After 30-Years of Being in Business." available at the booth.  You can follow the conference on Twitter, Facebook, & Linked-In by searching for the #FEDTCPACNY.     We are looking forward to teaming with Peter and Greg to do our presentation on Wednesday and hope all of you will join us!

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Thursday, January 24, 2019

NYC DEP Seeks Public Comments on Mold Notification Requirement

New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) is requesting public comments on a Notice of Mold Remediation Work.  A public hearing is being held on Wednesday, February 6, 2019, at 11:00 AM in the NYCDEP's 8th-floor conference room at 59-17 Junction Boulevard, Flushing, New York 11373.  The public comment period closes Wednesday, February 6, 2019.

Mold Growth in Corridor
Local Law Number 61 of 2018 (also known as Intro 978-D) amended the Administrative Code by adding a new Section 24-154, which provides that, before the performance of mold remediation work in certain buildings, the New York State-licensed mold remediation contractor must file a notice of mold remediation with NYCDEP no later than two business days before the project start date.  Section 24-154(c)(3)(b) further provides that notice may be filed within 24 hours after the project starts, instead of at least two days before, if the mold condition to be remediated poses an immediate risk of harm to any person or damage to property.  The purpose of the above public comment period is to establish a rule when such risk of harm exists.  In other words what the exception for two-day notification would be.  NYCDEP is proposing that projects that have at least 30 square feet or more of visible mold within one room or excessive water accumulation or flooding exists could notify NYCDEP 24 hours after the project starts with appropriate documentation that the condition exists.
Mold Abatement/Remediation/Assessment Course for Article 32 Licensing
Local Law 61 of 2018 went into effect on January 1, 2019.  The law requires licensing pursuant with New York State Department of Labor's Article 32 "Licensing of Mold Inspection, Assessment, and Remediations Specialists and Minimum Work Standards Law" to assess, remediate, and abate for mold incidents larger than 10 square feet.  The bill applies to residential buildings containing 10 or more units or commercial buildings larger than 25,000 square feet.  This law prohibits the owners or their direct employees from performing mold remediation or assessment work, which Article 32 allows.  Under this law, the person holding a mold assessment license must file with the NYCDEP a mold remediation form and work plan as well as a mold post assessment form and a mold certification form.  These forms are located at NYCDEP's Air Pollution website under Mold Remediation and Assessment.  It appears it will be an electronic submission and consists of a 6-page form for the mold remediation plan and a 4-page form for the mold post-assessment. 


Wednesday, January 09, 2019

Most Frequently Cited OSHA Standards in Fiscal Year 2018

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) annually publishes the top ten most frequently cited OSHA standards violated in the previous fiscal year.  OSHA has published the stats for the fiscal year (FY) 2018 (which runs from October 1, 2017, to September 30, 2018).  Here is the list of most frequently cited OSHA standards:

  1. Fall Protection, construction (1926.501)
  2. Hazard Communication Standard, general industry (1910.1200)
  3. Scaffolding, general requirements, construction (1926.451)
  4. Respiratory Protection (1910.134)
  5. Control of Hazardous Energy (lockout/tagout), general industry (1910.147)
  6. Ladders, construction (1926.1053)
  7. Powered Industrial Trucks, general industry (1910.178)
  8. Fall Protection - training requirements, construction (1926.503)
  9. Machinery & Machine Guarding, general requirements, general industry (1910.212)
  10. Eye and Face Protection (1926.102)
OSHA performed a total of 32,020 inspections in FY 2018.  In 2017, there were 971 fatalities in the construction industry which were 20.7% of total private industry fatalities.  The fatal four (falls, struck by, electrocution, & caught-in/between) were responsible for 59.9% of construction worker deaths in 2017.

The top 10 violations in the Remediation Servies Industry (which includes asbestos abatement, lead abatement, crime scene cleanups, oil spill cleanup, mold remediation, and hazardous materials remediation companies) were:
  1. Asbestos (1926.1101)
  2. Respiratory Protection (1910.134)
  3. Lead (1926.62)
  4. Hazard Communication (1910.1200)
  5. Permit-required Confined Spaces (1910.146)
  6. Inorganic arsenic (1910.1018)
  7. Duty to have Fall Protection (1926.501)
  8. Electronic Submission of Injury and Illness Records to OSHA (1904.41)
  9. Scaffolding, general requirements (1926.451)
  10. Ladders (1926.1053)
Interesting how the top four violations in the remediation industry should be the industry's specialty.


Since the silica standard has been in effect since September 23, 2017, we looked to see how many citations were issued in FY 2018.  OSHA performed 202 inspections in reference to the silica standard (1926.1153) and issued 556 citations for total penalties of $815,426.  The top 10 industries cited were:
  1. Masonry Contractors
  2. Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors
  3. Commercial & Institutional Building Construction
  4. Water & Sewer Line & Related Structures Construction
  5. Highway, Street, & Bridge Construction
  6. Site Preparation Contractors
  7. Residential Building Contractors
  8. Flooring Contractors
  9. All Other Specialty Trade Contractors
  10. Siding Contractors

As you can see OSHA is still performing inspections and still issuing citations.  Though silica standard is fairly new OSHA conducted almost triple the inspections than it did regarding asbestos.  However, OSHA's focus is definitely on falls, struck by, electrocutions, and caught-in/between. 

Friday, December 28, 2018

Merry Holidays and a Happy New Year From Future Environment Designs Training Center. The Only Constant is Change!

We wish all of you who read our blog and attend our classes a Merry Holidays and a Happy New Year!  We hope your 2019 is better than your 2018 and may it be healthy, prosperous, and joyful!

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
2019 will bring some changes to Future Environment Designs Training Center (#FEDTC).  The first change is to continue to grow our online training by providing training tokens to our clients who attend our asbestos & mold courses.  This added value to our current courses continues to distinguish us from our competitors.  So we can add training courses our clients/students would be interested in, we are asking our attendees for suggestions for classes we can develop into online training courses.  In addition, we are strongly considering becoming a New York State Education facility (we hope to have the financing for this undertaking within 2-3 weeks of the New Year).  This would allow us to offer the New York City training courses and provide the Site Safety Training cards.  It would also require us to expand the number of training instructors we use.  This will be a major undertaking and as many of you who know me, will take tremendous courage on my part to overcome my fears related to trusting others with my business.   2019 is already starting on a good beginning with several courses almost fully booked in the first quarter.

Bergdorf Goodman Window
No sooner than the New Year of 2019 rings in, New York City will be going through several changes.  The asbestos amendments to Title 15 will go into effect January 6, 2019, and the Indoor Allergen Rule goes into effect on January 16, 2019.  In New York State before the New Year hits (December 31) the minimum wage will go up.  In addition, don't forget to save the date for the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's  (PACNY) 23rd Annual Environmental Conference on February 27-28 & March 1, 2019, at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.  We will be your host for the February 27th, the proficiency day, where we will be discussing asbestos inspections/survey among other things.  We hope to see you there!  Again, we wish you a Merry Holidays & a Happy New Year!

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Friday, November 16, 2018

Local Law 196 of 2017 Deadlines Extended.

On November 8, 2018, New York City Department of Buildings tweeted about extending the deadlines for construction training under Local Law 196 of 2017.  Click here to see the tweet.  This pushes back the training requirements deadline from December 1, 2018, to June 1, 2019.  Currently, to work on most construction projects all that is required is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 10-hour construction safety course card.  This requirement will continue to be required until June 1, 2019.


After June 1, 2019, construction workers will be required to have 30-hours of training either by taking an OSHA 30-hour construction safety course or by getting 20 additional training hours over the OSHA 10-hour construction safety course.  Those 20 additional training hours must consist of an 8-hour fall protection course, a 4-hour scaffold user course, and an 8-hour site safety manager refresher course.


The next deadline has also been extended to September 1, 2020.  That deadline will require individuals taking the OSHA 10-hour construction safety course to take 30 additional hours of training or those individuals taking the OSHA 30-hour construction safety course to take 10 additional training hours.  For more information click here for the NYC Buildings Department November 2018 Service Update explaining these changes and requirements.

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

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