Revised Standard Seeks to Prevent Dropped Object Incidents at Work

A newly revised standard aims to provide employers with guidance for preventing dropped objects in the workplace. In the U.S., a worker is struck by an object that fell from above about every 10 minutes, according to the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA). Controls such as tool tethers and containers can help prevent objects from falling by tying them off or containing them during work at height, the association explains. ISEA describes ANSI/ISEA 121-2023, the American National Standard for Dropped Object Prevention Solutions, as “the first of its kind to address equipment used to tether [or] contain hand tools, components, structure, and other objects from falling from at-heights applications.” The standard, which was originally developed in 2018, establishes minimum design, performance, testing, and labeling requirements for solutions intended to help reduce incidents involving dropped objects in industrial and occupational settings.

 

The new ANSI/ISEA 121-2023 focuses on “active controls” that workers and employers can use to prevent objects from falling rather than passive solutions like netting or toe boards, which ISEA says are often ineffective. The association stresses that while personal protective equipment like hard hats can help reduce harm to workers who are struck by falling objects, PPE does not prevent objects from falling in the first place.

 

“While falling object protection differs from human fall protection, the stakes are equally high,” ISEA’s news release states. “Not only is anyone below an unsecured object at risk of injury or death, but the risk of collateral damage to other equipment, to machinery, to building surfaces, to vehicles and more is also enormous.”

 

Vinyl chloride is among five chemicals that EPA is proposing to designate as high-priority substances for risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The agency describes prioritization as the first step toward regulating chemicals that are currently on the market and in use. If EPA finalizes these proposed designations, the agency will begin risk evaluations to determine whether the substances present unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. TSCA calls for EPA to publish final risk evaluations within three to three-and-a-half years of identifying chemicals as high priority for risk evaluation. The four other chemicals EPA is proposing to evaluate are acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzenamine, and 4,4’-methylene bis(2-chloroaniline), or MBOCA.

 

Vinyl chloride was one of the hazardous substances on board the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in February 2023 near East Palestine, Ohio. In the U.S., vinyl chloride is used primarily by the plastics industry to produce polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. According to EPA, vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen that can cause liver, brain, and lung cancers among exposed workers. The chemicals acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzenamine, and MBOCA are also used to manufacture and process plastics as well as other materials, chemicals, and products, and the agency states that they are probable human carcinogens.

 

The publication of the proposed designations in the Federal Register today opens a 90-day public comment period during which EPA will accept feedback to inform the exposure and hazard assessments for these five chemicals. Also available in the docket on Regulations.gov are documents for each substance that outline the information, analysis, and basis that EPA used to support its proposed designations.

 

 

To help you get the training you need, Environmental Resource Center has added a number of dates to our already popular live webcast training. Stay in compliance and learn the latest regulations from the comfort of your office or home. You’ll receive the same benefits as our seminar attendees including expert instruction, comprehensive course materials, one year of access to our Answerline^TM service, course certificate, and a personalized user portal on Environmental Resource Center’s website.

 

Environmental Resource Center’s live webcast training is the best way to learn how to comply with the latest regulations that apply to your site. Learn from the experts and get your site-specific questions answered at these upcoming sessions:

 

 

Intalco Aluminum, LLC of Ferndale, Washington, has agreed to pay a penalty of $5.25 million as part of a settlement with the EPA and the Department of Justice that resolves the company’s violations of the Clean Air Act’s National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants.

 

In November 2019, EPA inspected the Ferndale facility and identified egregious violations of the Clean Air Act. A review of the facility’s records revealed a significant number of instances from 2017 to 2020 when the facility failed to maintain and operate air pollution control systems and exceeded emission limits. EPA also identified hundreds of instances during that time when the facility failed to comply with monitoring requirements, work practice standards, and recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

 

The violations resulted in excess emissions of particulate matter and hazardous air pollutants such as carbonyl sulfide, hydrogen fluoride, polycyclic organic matter, metals (e.g., lead, nickel and manganese), and mercury. Exposure to hazardous air pollutants can cause cancer and other serious health impacts.

 

The settlement is part of EPA’s “Reducing Air Toxics in Overburdened Communities” National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative that aims to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants near overburdened communities.

 

“While most of us breathe some level of air pollution, some communities have been exposed for decades to pollutants in the air, the water, and on land,” said EPA Region 10 Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Director Ed Kowalski. “EPA has prioritized the protection of these communities from facilities that violate laws meant to protect people from industrial pollution. While the Intalco facility is not currently operating, any new operation there should be aware that EPA will do everything it can to enforce environmental and public health laws to protect nearby Ferndale residents.”

 

Intalco Aluminum LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcoa Corporation, is the owner and operator of Alcoa Intalco Works, which became fully idle in October 2020 due to unfavorable market conditions and announced permanent closure in March 2023. Intalco surrendered its Title V Air Operating Permit in December 2023.

 

 

If you prefer live face to face training, join us for one of our informative seminars, conducted in cities throughout the country. Environmental Resource Center’s seminars are full of the information you need to ensure compliance with the regulations that apply to your site. Here’s a list of upcoming classes:

 

 

Had John's Disposal Service, Inc. and John's Recycling, Inc. in Franksville, WI, followed federal safety standards, a temporary maintenance worker might not have suffered severe injuries when their jacket sleeve was pulled into an engine as they serviced a vehicle in January 2024.

 

In response to the employer's report of a workplace injury, inspectors with OSHA arrived at the waste management companies' Franksville facility and determined the employer had not ensured that energy control procedures were in place and used before the worker began servicing the vehicle.

 

"A worker suffered severe injuries because their employer failed to implement an effective safety and health program and develop specific energy control procedures to protect workers conducting repairs on vehicles," said OSHA Area Director Dustin Schnipke in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "Employers are responsible for training their workers and taking all necessary precautions to protect them from known hazards."

 

During its January investigation, OSHA opened two follow-up inspections to verify the Franksville company had corrected hazards which the agency cited the employer in 2023.

 

The agency cited the companies, operating as a single entity, for two serious violations for lacking energy control procedures. OSHA also cited the company again for failures found in 2023:

 

In addition, the agency noted the company lacked a hearing conservation program and did not adequately install machine guards to protect employees from moving conveyors, motor shafts and a grinder.

 

In total, OSHA cited John's Disposal and John's Recycling for five repeat, five serious and three other-than-serious violations and proposed $367,401 in penalties.

 

Founded in 1969, the family-owned and operated waste removal and recycling company is based in Whitewater. The company employs about 300 people and has facilities in Franksville and Brookfield.

 

 

The EPA released its draft Insecticide Strategy for public comment, another milestone in the agency’s work to adopt early, practical protections for federally endangered and threatened (listed) species. The draft strategy identifies protections that EPA will consider when it registers a new insecticide or reevaluates an existing one. In developing this draft strategy, EPA identified protections to address potential impacts for more than 850 species listed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS).

 

“Ensuring the safe use of insecticides is a critical part of EPA’s mission to protect endangered species and the environment,” said Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Jake Li. “This draft strategy is another major step in the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to protect endangered species, support farmers and other insecticide users, and provide critical environmental protections for communities across the country.”

 

Today’s draft is part of EPA’s ongoing efforts to develop a more efficient, effective, and protective multichemical, multispecies approach to meeting its obligations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). EPA focused the draft strategy on conventional insecticides used in agriculture in the lower 48 states, where approximately 34 million pounds of insecticides are applied each year. The draft identifies protections earlier in the pesticide review process, thus creating a far more efficient approach to evaluate and protect the FWS-listed species that live near these agricultural areas.

 

This draft strategy also incorporates lessons learned from EPA’s draft herbicide strategy that the agency released last year to minimize the impacts of agricultural herbicides on listed species. For example, based on feedback on the draft herbicide strategy, EPA designed the mitigations in the draft insecticide strategy to maximize the number of options for farmers and other pesticide users. These mitigation options also consider farmers who are already implementing measures to reduce pesticide runoff and those who are located in areas less prone to pesticide runoff, such as flat lands and regions with less rain to carry pesticides off fields. These measures also include the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service 1 practices and state or private stewardship measures that are effective at reducing pesticide runoff.

 

Similar to the herbicide strategy, the draft insecticide strategy uses the most updated information and processes to determine whether an insecticide will impact a listed species and identify protections to address any impacts. To determine impacts, the draft strategy considers where a species lives, what it needs to reproduce (e.g., food or pollinators), where the pesticide will end up in the environment, and what kind of impacts the pesticide might have if it reaches the species. These refinements greatly reduce the need for pesticide restrictions in situations that do not benefit species.

 

Once final, the insecticide strategy will expedite future ESA consultations with FWS. In the draft strategy, EPA identified mitigations to address the potential impacts of insecticides on listed species even before EPA completes the ESA consultation process—which in many cases, can take five years or more. Further, once EPA finalizes the Insecticide Strategy, the agency and FWS expect to formalize their understanding of how this strategy can inform and streamline future ESA consultations for insecticides. Through a separate initiative, EPA is addressing potential impacts of insecticides to listed species and critical habitats protected by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

 

EPA’s decades-long approach of trying to meet these obligations chemical-by-chemical and species-by-species is slow and costly, resulting in litigation against the agency and uncertainty for farmers and other pesticide users about the continued availability of many pesticides. At the beginning of 2021, EPA faced nearly 20 lawsuits covering thousands of pesticide products due to its longstanding failure to meet ESA obligations for pesticides. Now, all of those lawsuits have been resolved as a result of the Biden-Harris Administration’s new approaches for protecting endangered species, which include this draft strategy.

 

 

An updated version of SunSmart Global UV, a mobile app intended to help outdoor workers and others avoid excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, is available for free from the Apple App and Google Play stores. SunSmart Global UV works by providing daily UV levels for users’ local areas as well as times when sun protection is required. According to the app’s developers, new features include GPS integration, increased global coverage, and support for tablets. A large UV index display on the app’s home screen, the use of Celsius or Fahrenheit temperature units based on device settings, and bug fixes meant to enhance the app’s stability and performance are among the improvements to SunSmart Global UV. The app is also newly available in Arabic in addition to previously available languages including Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

 

SunSmart Global UV is based on the UV Index, which indicates the expected risk of overexposure to UV radiation from the sun at the earth’s surface on a scale of 1 to 11. World Health Organization (WHO) guidance recommends modifying outdoor activities and using sun protection when the UV Index is 3 or above. Users of SunSmart Global UV can track UV levels and receive personalized sun protection advice for up to 10 locations, an International Labor Organization (ILO) news update explains.

 

“Every year 1.6 billion workers, in particular those working outdoors, are exposed to solar UV radiation at work, and this number is likely to increase with climate change,” says Joaquim Pintado Nunes, chief of ILO’s Occupational Safety and Health and Working Environment Branch. “There is a critical need to raise workers’ awareness about the risks they face due to unprotected exposure to solar UV.”

 

The SunSmart Global UV app was first released in 2022 by ILO, the United Nations Environment Programme, WHO, and the World Meteorological Organization. It was developed by Cancer Council Victoria, a nonprofit organization in Australia, and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, a government agency.

 

 

Winter Haven Contractor Cited for Exposing Workers to Potentially Deadly Falls  

Climate Activists Ground Flights at Cologne-Bonn Airport