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Brenda Mahedy

Mobile Computing Improving EH&S Management

EHS Incident Management
From a workplace accident to an environmental release … from a transportation problem to a dropped container … from an inconvenience to a disaster … all these EHS incidents are now the focus of a new section of Essential Technologies’ Incident Master Portal called EHS Incident Management. EHS Incident Management provides information and recommendations on planning, response, and recovery from all types of incidents and near-misses.

Recent examples include:

  • An article titled “Cyanide Stolen in Tokyo” highlighted the risk to chemical manufacturers and distributors that common theft presents when the stolen product is a hazardous material. A stolen kilogram of cyanide was reportedly enough to kill about 5,000 people.
  • “Guide to Assessing the Need for Personal Protective Equipment: A Guide for Small Business Employers” focuses on a problem faced across America – small companies have big needs for EHS programs. Personal Protective Equipment is one example. This feature provides checklists to determine a company’s compliance obligations and directs the user to relevant OSHA documents to meet these obligations.

 

EcoSearch Canada
Environmental Resources, Inc. online environmental data service, EcoSearch, is now available for Canadian sites. You supply the location and EcoSearch prepares a custom report containing site-specific environmental quality information from a variety of sources, including:

    • Environment Canada’s National PCB Inventory
    • the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI)
    • the “Orphan/Abandoned Sites Program”
    • Waste Generator Summaries
    • Waste Receiver Summaries
    • the Private Fuel Storage Tanks database
    • the Occurrence Reporting Information System (ORIS)
    • the Water Well Information System (WWIS)
    • the Pesticide Register
    • and many more

Each report comes with a site map and a series of tables summarizing relevant information from the reference databases.

For more information, contact Environmental Resources, Inc.: telephone (317) 577-9797, fax (317) 9191.

1999 TRI Data Available
The US EPA just released the 1999 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data and several related documents. According to EPA, these data show decreases in emissions in several industries. The Agency also announced steps being taken to make it easier for industry to meet reporting requirements.

“This inventory is a powerful tool for helping to protect public health and the environment. I am pleased at the significant progress being made as trends continue downward. We continue to have high quality information to analyze and provide to citizens,” said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. “Americans are reaping considerable benefits from the TRI program. We’re seeing constant decreases of emissions to air, land, and water, especially in the manufacturing industries where there has been a 46 percent decrease over the 12-year history of the program.”

To facilitate industry reporting requirements, EPA has introduced a new computer software product, TRIAL, which provides reporting facilities easier access to all TRI reporting regulations and guidance on interpreting those regulations. This system is available on EPA’s TRI website and is included in the software package provided to companies for the reporting process required by Congress under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA).

The EPCRA law requires industrial facilities each year to publicly report the quantities of toxic chemicals released into the air, water, and land. EPA then analyzes these data to generate the annual TRI reports. Overall, the TRI includes information on releases and other wastes for 644 toxic chemicals and chemical compounds.

Overall, chemical emissions have decrease 46 percent in the manufacturing industries, about 1.5 billion pounds, over the 12-year history of the program. The one-year decrease from 1998 to 1999 was 2.5 percent.

The largest increase in total releases from 1998 to 1999 was reported by metal mining—an increase of 416.3 million pounds or 11.7 percent. For chemical wholesale distributors, total releases from 1998 to 1999 increased by 28.3 percent (435,000 pounds), waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities by 2.7 percent (7.5 million pounds) and electric generating facilities by 2.2 percent (24.9 million pounds).

The largest volume of chemical releases for all industries was reported by facilities in Nevada, followed by Utah, Arizona, Alaska, Texas, Ohio, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois, in that order.

A special research tool, TRI EXPLORER, is also available on a link from the TRI web page. It provides county-by-county assessments of the data. The public can sort the data by facility, chemical, geographic areas, or industry, at the state or national level.

The 1999 Toxics Release Inventory data and background information on the TRI program are available at: www.epa.gov.