EHS on Tap

“Safety culture” is top priority for every safety manager these days, but how to shape a culture is a continual challenge. Most of the time, the focus is on the attitudes of managers and supervisors that work directly with workers and improving employee engagement, but a successful safety culture also requires the most senior leaders of an organization to provide effective safety leadership. But what does that leadership look like and what are the obstacles to achieving success? On today’s EHS on Tap, we discuss senior management’s role in creating a solid safety culture with Adam Levesque, a safety management consultant at MEMIC, a Workers Compensation Specialty Insurer. You can join Adam at BLR's Safety Culture 2017, being held this September in Austin, Texas for his presentation "Team-Based Accountability’s Connection to Leading Indicators: Using Effective Metrics to Drive Employee Participation and Accident Prevention." Safety Culture 2017 (safetyculture.blr.com) is the nation's most targeted event on safety culture improvement to increase engagement, strengthen compliance, and create more alignment between staff and safety initiatives.

All employers required to keep injury and illness records are impacted by the improved tracking of the workplace injuries and illnesses rule, and more than 460,000 employers will need to electronically submit records for public scrutiny under OSHA’s recent rulemaking. Many believe the antiretaliation provision of the rule will be eliminated as soon as OSHA leadership moves in. But what about the electronic submission of records and posting the data? This is a massive undertaking in an already underfunded and understaffed Agency. On today’s EHS on Tap, we will be discussing the future of OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements with Tressi Cordaro. Tressi is a partner in the Washington, D.C. region office of Jackson Lewis PC., where she advises and represents employers on occupational safety and health matters before federal and state OSHA enforcement agencies. Tressi will also be presenting at this year’s BLR Safety Summit in early April in Austin, Texas.

The new administration has been with us for a few weeks now, and we have seen a lot of activity involving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With President Trump’s new Executive Order directing federal agencies to repeal two regulations for every new one issued, his promise to roll back most of EPA’s regulations, and many in Congress calling for the agency to be eliminated entirely, things can be expected to stay very interesting. In this episode of EHS on Tap, we discuss the Executive Order’s effects on the EPA, whose methodology for crafting regulations has come under fire in recent years, with attorney Steven Hoch. Steven is a Partner with Morris Polich and Purdy LLP based in Los Angeles. Note: This interview took place just before Scott Pruitt was nominated as the new head of the EPA. Get the latest environmental news at Enviro.BLR.com, including Trump's recent order to repeal or revise EPA's Clean Water Rule: http://ow.ly/vSYr309yxBE

OSHA announced its silica final rule last spring and it immediately received criticism from industry groups. These groups call the standard unobtainable and very costly--and they claim that the rule isn’t really necessary to improve worker safety. The rule has spawned lawsuits and speculation that a Republican-controlled Congress could take action to overturn it. Adele Abrams, a preeminent occupational safety attorney, joins us to help sort out the facts (and dispel a few myths) about the rule,

On this episode of EHS on Tap, we speak with Seth Brown about the costs associated with stormwater regulations as well as the key roles of businesses, municipalities, and communities in managing effective stormwater programs.

Emily Remmel speaks with attorney Adele Abrams on OSHA's recent rulemaking for walking working surfaces that goes into effect January 17, 2017.

On this episode of EHS on Tap, Emily Remmel talks to Scott Dunsmore of Lion Technologies about EPA’s recent rulemaking finalizing regulations on hazardous waste generators.

On this episode, we speak with Alden Davis about the situational awareness of animals in their natural environments as compared to humans in the everyday work environment.

On this episode of EHS on Tap, we speak with State Senator Rob Hogg from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to discuss the upcoming presidential election and the likely significant impacts on the environment regardless of whether Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton wins or Republican nominee, Donald Trump wins.

On this episode of EHS on Tap, we speak with attorney Adele Abrams regarding the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s recent rulemaking on reporting injuries in the workplace and how work-related injuries can trigger drug testing and employer retaliation. Note: This podcast was recorded before OSHA sent the notification that the effective date of the final rule has been changed to December 1, 2016.