IHMM Today February 20, 2024

Inside IHMM

Comparing the IHMM CDGP with the DGSA

A Collaborative Culture

There are 1,253 different conversations going on in the IHMM/HMS Collaboration platform this week.

A collaborative culture is important for every business but is especially important for our hazardous materials, dangerous goods, environment, health, and safety communities of practice. Do you have a problem you need to solve and want the opinions of your colleagues? This is where we come together to help each other.

IHMM credentialed professionals are at the top 1% of their professions and their reach is global. We are at the forefront of environmental protection, health, and safety and this is where collaborating with the best people in their fields, always willing to help one another, lessens the stress of our jobs, and where we strive as a team to make a difference of which we are proud.

We opened COLLABORATION to enable thousands of certificants and supporters to collaborate together.

You can collaborate here.

Access to COLLABORATION is through the same username/password you use to access your MYIHMM account. Having a problem? Contact Jimmy Nguyen at [email protected]

IHMM Proposes Changes in Government Recognition of Credentials

State of Maine Department of Environmental Protection is proposing to update Chapter 851, Standards for Generators of Hazardous Waste. In the current regulation work is required by a professional engineer. IHMM is proposing to include an environmental professional as defined by 40 CFR §312.10.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has a number of courses in occupational safety and health within which OSHA credits “A degree in occupational safety and health, a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) or a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) designation.” IHMM will propose including the CHMM, CSHM, and CSMP.

Beltway Buzz, Ogletree Deakins

Congress: House Departs With Funding Deadline on the Horizon. This week, the U.S. Senate passed a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan that did not include the immigration-related provisions the Buzz discussed last week. It is unclear at this moment how the U.S. House of Representatives plans to address the bill. It may be a while before we know more, too, as the House is out for its Washington’s Birthday recess and not scheduled to return until February 28, 2024. (The Senate returns two days earlier on February 26.) This leaves little time for legislators to pass legislation to keep the federal government from partially shutting down on March 1, 2024. And funding for the remainder of the federal government—including the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—is set to expire one week later, on March 8, 2024.

OSHA Walkaround Reg. Moves Forward. On February 9, 2024, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) transmitted its final “walkaround” regulation to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review. This is the final step in the rulemaking process and indicates that publication of the final rule will happen shortly. The Buzz expects one or more employer groups to file a legal challenge to the final rule. In addition to the employer community, the proposal remains controversial among Republicans on Capitol Hill. In a February 12, 2024, letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, wrote the following:

The proposed walkaround rule puts politics first by promoting Big Labor’s interests, interferes in labor-management relations, increases costs, puts union bosses ahead of workers, and overturns longstanding regulations. DOL should stop putting its political goal of promoting unionization at all costs ahead of keeping workers safe.

Top Senate HELP Committee Republican Wants Hearing for Su. Senate Republicans continue to express concerns that President Biden’s renomination of Julie Su to be secretary of labor circumvents their advice and consent function. This week, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) requested that Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), hold a hearing on Su’s renomination:

Therefore, I respectfully request that you hold a hearing for Ms. Su’s renomination so that Senators may question her record, and that you hold a public mark-up on her nomination. Any other act will circumvent this Committee’s constitutionally mandated advice and consent role for Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed (PAS) positions.

Senator Cassidy maintains that a hearing is necessary because “Ms. Su’s tenure as Acting Secretary has been plagued by ill-advised policy decisions and consistent mismanagement.” According to Senator Cassidy’s letter, examples of these missteps include delayed H-2B visa approvals, “missed red flags of exploitative child labor practices,” a $127 million overpayment to the Teamsters pension fund, the aforementioned walkaround regulation, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage regulations, and the DOL’s new independent contractor rule and overtime proposal.

DOL Extends Comment Period for Schedule A Listed Occupations. On February 15, 2024, the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) published a notice extending the comment period for its request for information (RFI) regarding potential changes to its Schedule A list of occupations for the permanent labor certification process. The original comment period was scheduled to close on February 20, 2024 (sixty days after publication of the RFI), but that period has been extended to May 13, 2024. According to the notice, ETA is extending the comment period because it “has received a very limited number of comments, many of which do not provide the information requested or address the questions raised in the RFI.” Additionally, the notice states that the AFL-CIO requested an extension.

Democratic AGs Petition OSHA for Heat Rule. As the administration works to advance its regulatory agenda ahead of the November elections, late last week a group of Democratic attorneys general petitioned OSHA “to issue an emergency temporary standard for occupational heat exposure for farmworkers and construction workers, at minimum, beginning May 1, 2024.” (Many of the same attorneys general petitioned OSHA last year with the same request for an occupational heat ETS for agricultural and construction workers.) Readers who remember OSHA’s failed “vax-or-test” COVID-19 emergency temporary standard likely recall that to issue such a standard—which would not require prior input from stakeholders—OSHA must demonstrate that heat presents a “grave danger” to employees and that an emergency temporary standard (ETS) is necessary to protect employees (and the ETS would expire after six months). The petition maintains that “extreme heat poses a disproportionately grave danger to farmworkers and construction workers, especially during the summer months, and an emergency temporary standard is necessary to protect these workers from such danger.” While OSHA has completed its required Small Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) panel, the most recent regulatory agenda does not set a target date for issuance of a heat stress notice of proposed rulemaking.

House Committee Examines Wage and Hour Issues. On February 14, 2024, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing entitled “Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Wage and Hour Division.” The sole witness at the hearing was the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) administrator, Jessica Looman. Republican members focused on many of the same issues raised in Senator Cassidy’s letter but with an obvious focus on WHD matters, such as the independent contractor, overtime, and Davis-Bacon Act regulations, as well as child labor issues, particularly when they’ve involve immigrant minors. The hearing will likely help to lay the groundwork for the introduction of Congressional Review Act resolutions.

Political Reality Check. While the current political acrimony on Capitol Hill appears to be at an all-time high, it can be helpful to remember that our national politics have always been rancorous (there was a Civil War, after all) and at times have devolved into physical altercations. There was, of course, Representative Preston Brooks’s brutal attack on Senator Charles Sumner in 1856. And even prior to that, there was an unfortunate altercation that occurred this week in 1798 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The incident arose when, during deliberations surrounding the impeachment of Senator William Blount, Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont loudly insulted the Connecticut delegation on the House floor. Connecticut Representative Roger Griswold responded by alleging that Lyon’s military service during the Revolutionary War was less than admirable, to which Lyon responded by spitting tobacco juice in Griswold’s face. When a subsequent vote to expel Lyon for “disorderly behavior” failed, Griswold took matters into his own hands and attacked Lyon with a cane on the morning of February 15, 1798, and a brawl ensued. Amazingly, both Lyon and Griswold were allowed to keep their seats in the House. Later that year, Lyon was imprisoned for violation of the Alien and Sedition Acts (for writings critical of President John Adams) but still managed to win reelection—the only member of Congress to ever win an election while in jail.

Draft Amendments to ADR – January 1, 2025

This contains the consolidated lists of draft amendments adopted by the Working Party on the Transport of Dangerous Goods. These amendments are expected to take effect on 1 January 2025, subject to adoption by the ADR Contracting Parties.

Read more here.

Transport Canada – CID

Transport Canada (TC) has introduced new registration provisions into the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations (TDGR) through the new Part 17, Site Registration Requirements, which was published in Part II of the Canada Gazette on October 25, 2023. The new provisions require registration to the Client Identification Database (CID) for persons or organizations involved in dangerous goods (DG) activities (i.e., all persons who import, offer for transport, handle, or transport dangerous goods at a “site” in Canada), unless otherwise exempted. TC intends to use the information on sites collected through the CID to assess their risk to public safety, share important information with stakeholders and prioritize sites for inspection based on risk.

EPA – Definition of Hazardous Waste Applicable to Corrective Action for Releases From Solid Waste Management Units

EPA Releases Final TSCA Fees Rule

EPA Extends Submission Deadline for Polymer Exemption Reports and Accompanying Claims

Did you know you can register for a free webinar on OSHA’s injury reporting requirements?

OSHA is hosting a two-part webinar on the employer requirement to electronically submit workplace injury and illness data using the Injury Tracking Application. You can register for the free event here and Spanish and Portuguese translation will be available for both.

February 28, 9-10:15 a.m. EST: This presentation will be an overview of OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements and address common mistakes made by employers, incentive and disincentive programs, and tips on how an employer can effectively audit their recordkeeping program.

IHMM CHMM, CHMP, CSHM, and CSMP certificants may receive up to 2 certification maintenance points [CMPs] for attending these webinars.

Inside EPA Updates

Industry Asks EPA To Delay Finalizing Sweeping Environmental Justice Guide

Industry groups are asking EPA to delay finalizing sweeping guidance for incorporating environmental justice (EJ) considerations into regulatory analysis in order to integrate final versions of several related guides, including materials on cumulative risk assessment and a policy for ensuring “meaningful” public involvement in rulemaking.

EPA Readies Steps To Ease Implementation For Tightened PM2.5 NAAQS

EPA is floating several avenues to smooth implementation of its just-finalized fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standards even as it maintains that most regions will face little difficulty coming into compliance, amid concerns from states and industry over severe impacts from permit requirements triggered by the new rule.

EPA Eyes ‘Aggregate’ Methods For Detecting PFAS In Drinking Water

EPA is seeking public input on its development of test methods that could measure a wider range of PFAS in drinking water, including an aggregate screening method, following on the agency’s move in 2022 to name the entire class of chemicals on the list of contaminants it is considering for possible regulation.

States, Environmentalists Urge EPA To Set High Bar For Safer Choice Listings

Two state agencies and several environmental groups are offering cautious praise for EPA’s plans to expand its voluntary Safer Choice labeling program for products that use less-toxic chemicals to cleaning services and packaging, while pushing the agency to set strict standards on both sectors — particularly for substances already facing TSCA scrutiny.

Justices’ Looming Chevron Decision Could Imperil Scores Of EPA Rules

The Supreme Court’s pending decision on the future of the Chevron doctrine could imperil thousands of EPA and other rules that have relied on the doctrine since it was first articulated in 1984, experts say, though the scope of the decision, expected in June, and its precise effects, will depend on how it is written.

PM Rule Revives Congressional Debate Over Air Permits, NAAQS Process

EPA’s release of a tougher federal air limit for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has revived debate over air permitting and standard-setting amid worsening pollution from wildfires and other non-industrial sources, as House Republicans and industry warn of permitting “gridlock” and again push draft legislation to discourage further tightening of limits.

–Inside EPA

Creating the Water Workforce of the Future: Webinar Series

Veterans in the Water Workforce 

February 29, 2024

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time

Register Here

As part of EPA’s commitment to helping build a diverse and sustainable water workforce, today’s veterans can provide a very important set of skills as well as benefit from a range of programs designed to help them build a meaningful career in water. Please join us on February 29th to hear from organizations that are reaching out to and training these veterans so they can play a key role in protecting our nation’s critical water infrastructure.

 This webinar is part of an ongoing webinar series hosted by EPA, in partnership with leading water sector organizations around the country. More information on this webinar series can be found at 

https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-water-infrastructure/water-sector-workforce-webinars

For any questions related to this announcement, please contact [email protected]

EPA – Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems

EPA – Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and Emission Guidelines for Existing Sources: Large Municipal Waste Combustors Voluntary Remand Response and 5-Year Review

The EPA is proposing amendments to the new source performance standards (NSPS) and emission guidelines (EG) for large municipal waste combustion (MWC) units. These proposed amendments reflect the results from a reevaluation of the maximum achievable control technology (MACT) floor levels, a 5-year review, and the removal of startup, shutdown and malfunction exclusions and exceptions. These proposed amendments also streamline regulatory language, revise recordkeeping and electronic notification and reporting requirements, re-establish new and existing source applicability dates, clarify requirements for certain air curtain incinerators, close a 2007 proposed reconsideration action, correct certain typographical errors, make certain technical corrections, and clarify certain provisions in the NSPS and EG. These proposed amendments would revise all emission limits in the EG, except for carbon monoxide (CO) limits for two subcategories of combustors, and all nine emission limits in the NSPS. The EPA is reevaluating the MACT floors in response to the EPA’s voluntary remand of the large MWC rules following a petitioner’s request that the EPA review the MACT floors for large MWC units in consideration of a D.C. Circuit Court decision on MACT floor issues. The 5-year review is required by the Clean Air Act (CAA). The proposed amendments would result in an estimated 14,000 tons per year reduction in regulated pollutants.

DATES:

Comments must be received on or before March 25, 2024. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), comments on the information collection provisions are best assured of consideration if the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) receives a copy of your comments on or before February 22, 2024.

Public hearing: If anyone contacts us requesting a public hearing on or before January 29, 2024, we will hold a virtual public hearing. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for information on requesting and registering for a public hearing.

Read the proposed amendments here.

Preparation and Response Strategies: Lessons Learned From a Mass Shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, TN Webinar

Join the Institute for Intergovernmental Research’s (IIR) Knowledge College session on “Preparation and Response Strategies: Lessons Learned From a Mass Shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee” on 2/29, from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM ET. Captain Steven Bowers, the former commanding officer of MNPD’s School Safety Division, will provide insights into the 2023 mass shooting incident, sharing valuable lessons on prevention, response, and recovery strategies.

Limited to sworn law enforcement personnel, this session aims to help participants identify specific opportunities for preventing and responding to school violence, enhance local critical response planning, and build collaboration for improved emergency preparedness.

Register Now

• 2/29 – Preparation and Response Strategies: Lessons Learned From a Mass Shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, TN Webinar
  Hosted by the Institute for Intergovernmental Research
• 3/8 – Enhancing School Safety Using Behavioral Threat Assessment Webinar
  Hosted by The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments
• 4/4 – Preventing Mass Attacks in Our Communities Webinar Hosted by the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center

School Threat Assessment Toolkit

The School Threat Assessment Toolkit, releasing 3/6, offers schools guidance on employing behavioral threat assessment (TA) and management to prevent violence. Developed with input from various experts and organizations, it provides training, implementation, and assessment tools for school TA teams while safeguarding student rights. Learn more here.

EPA Issues Final SNUR to Prevent Inactive PFAS from Reentering Commerce

On January 11, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final significant new use rule (SNUR) to prevent companies from starting or resuming the manufacture (including import) or processing of 329 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are designated as inactive on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory. 89 Fed. Reg. 1822. The final rule notes that persons subject to the final SNUR are required to notify EPA at least 90 days before commencing any manufacture (including import) or processing of the chemical substance for a significant new use. Once EPA receives a significant new use notification (SNUN), EPA must review and make an affirmative determination on the SNUN and take such action as is required by any such determination before the manufacture (including import) or processing for the significant new use can commence. EPA states that such a review “will assess whether the new use may present unreasonable risk to health or the environment and ensure that EPA takes appropriate action as required to protect health or the environment.” The SNUR will take effect March 11, 2024. For more information, please read the full memorandum.

Read more here.

NPRM: Streamlining Requirements for the Approval of Certain Energetic Materials

On November 30, PHMSA published the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) “HM-257A: Streamlining Requirements for the Approval of Certain Energetic Materials” to the Federal Register. This NPRM proposes to amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations to:

• Streamline the classification and approval process for low-hazard ground device fireworks
• Codify existing guidance for UN3178 novelty devices
• Revise classification criteria for small arms cartridges to include tracer ammunition
• Include the PHMSA Portal as the method to submit applications for all explosives approvals
• Allow for voluntary termination of an explosive approval by the approval holder.

If you’re involved in the pyrotechnics supply chain, PHMSA wants your input! The public comment period for this NPRM ends on February 28, 2024.
Interested in being the first to know when PHMSA posts notices and rulemakings to the Federal Register? Receive email notifications from the Federal Register whenever PHMSA posts by visiting the Federal Register site and clicking ‘Subscribe’ at https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/pipeline-and-hazardous-materials-safety-administration.

Mental Health: Ending the Stigma

The evidence is overwhelming: so many Americans are struggling with their mental health. In 2021, CDC reported that the percentage of adults with recent symptoms of anxiety or depression increased from 36.4 percent to 41.5 percent between August 2020 and February 2021. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), two-thirds of adults say they experienced increased stress over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. And just two months ago, another CDC report found that the suicide rate in 2021 was more than 30 percent higher than it was 20 years ago. The conclusion reached by APA is that “we are facing a national mental health crisis that could yield serious health and social consequences for years to come.”

Read more here.

Columbia Southern University

The Hazardous Materials Society [HMS] is a partner of Columbia Southern University. Columbia Southern University is an online university based in Orange Beach, Alabama, that strives to change and improve lives through higher education by enabling students to maximize their professional and personal potential.

A subsidiary of Columbia Southern Education Group, CSU offers online degree programs at the associate, bachelor, master, doctorate or certificate levels in a multitude of areas such as occupational safety and health, fire administration, criminal justice, business administration, human resource management, health care administration and more. CSU also features undergraduate and graduate certificate programs to provide focused training in specialized areas for adult learners.

Click on the CSU graphic at left and learn more about the professional development and degree program opportunities at CSU.

IHMM-HMS Event Calendar