Health & Safety Program Compliance

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the federal agency responsible for protecting the health and safety of workers. OSHA works to ensure that employers follow occupational safety and health regulations and keep the workplace safe. Providing a safe workplace is not only a regulatory requirement it is an effective way of improving performance and the bottom-line. Companies that maintain a healthy workforce will find both direct cost-savings, e.g., lower workers’ compensation insurance and reduced medical expenditures, as well as impacts on indirect costs that may include increases in productivity and morale which lead to reductions in turnover.

OSHA Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines, originally issued in January 1989 as The Four-Point Workplace Program, describe voluntary guidelines representing OSHA’s policy on what every worksite should have in place to protect workers from occupational hazards. The key program elements include:
Management commitment and employee involvement,

Worksite Analysis,

Hazard Prevention and Control, and

Training for Employees, Supervisors, and Managers.
In addition to the federal program, there are currently 22 States and jurisdictions operating complete State plans (covering both the private sector and State and local government employees) and 5 – Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and the Virgin Islands – which cover public employees only. (Eight other States were approved at one time but subsequently withdrew their programs).
OSHA Consulting Services

ESC is positioned to provide a full range of OSHA consulting services to assist you in either developing or improving upon your health & safety programs. Our compliance service offerings can provide you assistance in a broad range of the OSHA standards, including:

Chemical Handling: Procedure and Storage

Chemical Hygiene: Laboratory Program Plans and Training
Confined Space Entry (Permit-required): Programs and Training
Hazard Communication: Programs, Training, Evaluation of New Products, Labeling
HAZWOPER: Safety and Health Plans, Site-Specific Refresher Training & Mock Drills
Occupational Noise Exposure: Hearing Conservation Programs, Noise Monitoring, Engineering Controls, Training

Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout): Programs and Training
PPE: Job Hazard Assessments, PPE Selection and Employee Training
Process Safety Management: Analysis/HAZOPs, Requirements, and Plans
Respiratory Protection: Programs Training/Fit Testing and Medical Surveillance
Safety Committee and Supervisory Training/Certification
Toxic & Hazardous Substances: PELs & Industrial Hygiene Standards – Subpart Z Contaminants, e.g., Lead, Cadmium, Methylene Chloride, etc…
Workers’ Compensation and Injury/Illness Prevention and Record Management
We look forward to assisting you.

Let our experience and expertise increase your profits!

For More info:...

http://www.envirostrat.com/health-safety/

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Emergency Planning

The modern industrial society in which we live and work impacts on all of us the potential to come in contact with a wide variety of hazardous substances – substances that under normal conditions are controlled and pose no threat to human life and the environment. Within daily commerce, these materials can be found in transport via trucks, trains, and ships or in storage and use within industrial facilities. However, when these substances enter the environment through an accidental release, they can contaminate the land we use, the water we drink, and the air we breathe, with potentially disastrous results.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as state and local governments, have established programs to help ensure that facilities and organizations take steps to prevent oil spills, chemical accidents, and other emergencies; implement planning and preparedness requirements; and respond to environmental emergencies. First and foremost, the regulated community must abide by emergency management program requirements and EPA enforcement through the development and implementation of emergency response plans. The specific requirements for the content of these plans depend upon the hazardous substance of concern as well as the regulating authority requiring that emergency preparedness measures be in place.

In their simplest form, these documents are considered to be contingency plans that describe the information and processes for responding to EPA enforcement and hazardous substance emergencies. Other names, as dictated by the overriding regulatory requirement, include Facility Response Plans (FRP), Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans, Preparedness, Prevention and Contingency (PPC) Plans, Discharge Prevention, Containment and Countermeasure (DPCC) Plans and Risk Management Plans (RMP). Although each of these unique plans is the requirement of an individual regulatory statute, it is sometimes possible to streamline emergency preparedness planning to meet the requirements while creating a program and procedures that will be effective and meaningful for the facility.

EPA Enforcement Consulting and Emergency Plan Assessments

ESC works with our clients by supplying EPA enforcement consulting in order to appropriately and effectively meet the applicable regulatory requirements. In addition to plan development and certification, our staff’s broad background within industrial and petrochemical manufacturing will allow us to assist you in conducting training and exercise programs as part of the overall emergency plan assessment activities. We look forward to assisting you.

* This figure presents a portion of the flowchart concept discussed at the US EPA National Response Center (NRC) website detailing the functioning of the National Response System. When a release or spill occurs, if the amount of a hazardous substance release or oil spill exceeds the established reporting trigger, the organization responsible for the release or spill is required by law to notify the NRC.

The following links provide you access to emergency planning rules and guidance.