2.1 Definition
As I mentioned in the introduction, this website is intended for personnel responsible for EHS requirements and regulations for a company or an organization. These personnel may be in an EHS department, separate environmental and health and safety departments or may reside in operations, legal or human resources departments.
Occupational health and safety regulations apply to employee health and physical well-being within the facility’s property lines, although they may also provide recommendations for home safety. The purpose is to protect employees, contractors and other visitors from burns, chemical and noise exposure, cuts, electrocution, falls, suffocation, etc.
Environmental requirements typically involve protecting humans (i.e., not employees, but people beyond the fence or property lines of the facility also referred to as the ‘public’) as well as other animals and plants. The environmental regulations are typically based on the medium (i.e., air, land and water) and prevent or limit emissions and discharges to these mediums.
The distinction between employees and the public might seem odd; they are all humans and, if something is hazardous to a human off the facility property, it should be hazardous to a human on the facility property. However, each agency prepares regulations accordingly. A good example is in the chemicals covered by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chemical Accident Prevention Program (CAPP) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)) Process Safety Management Process Safety Management (PSM) regulations. The regulations are similar and both designed to prevent chemical accidents, but some chemical thresholds varie[1]. It could take more of a chemical to impact someone offsite, which is reflected in the higher chemical thresholds for the Chemical Accident Prevention Program (CAPP) chemicals; the Process Safety Management Process Safety Management (PSM) threshold for chlorine is 1,500 pounds and Chemical Accident Prevention Program (CAPP) threshold is 2,500 pounds[2].
In addition to the items mentioned above, at some companies, EHS personnel may also be responsible for workman’s compensation and corporate social responsibility.
2.2 Protection Versus Regulation
One important concept of EHS work is the overlap between protection of the environment and workers, and the EHS regulations. Several EHS professional tasks are not directly related to protecting the environment and workers as illustrated on the Venn diagrams below (not shown to any implied scale). This observation is not intended to be critical of regulatory agencies. These tasks may be important to the overall/big picture for the regulatory organizations. I acknowledge that the existence of seemingly unrelated regulations can be frustrating for those who sought the EHS field for the altruistic feelings associated with protecting the environment and/or workers.
The initial focus of this website is on dealing with regulatory issues since I have found that information on this practice is not readily available. In contrast, information on health and safety philosophy and corporate social responsibility is well-documented and accessible.
2.3 History
I have not encountered a detailed account of how EHS programs came into being. Sidney Dekker discusses some of the history of safety philosophies, which includes information on safety regulations and programs at industrial facilities[3]. According to Dekker, most of the safety philosophies that guide our current programs began in the 20th century[4]. These predate the formation of the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)). In 1970, Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)) through passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which confusingly is also referred to as Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or sometimes Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)[5]. The Department of Labor has a detailed background on the impetus behind the passage of this act if you want details: The Job Safety Law of 1970: Its Passage Was Perilous [6].
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was also formed in 1970 and the EPA has a detailed overview of why it was created and what it accomplished in the early years: EPA History (1970 – 1985)[7].
2.4 Scope
The scope of the EHS manager or department responsibility can vary greatly. Outsiders who do not understand EHS argot may assume that regulations without an obvious home fall into the EHS responsibility even if they are not Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or Occupational Safety and Health Administration-related.
In my experience, the following areas may be included under the EHS umbrella or covered by another department (i.e., possibly the department in parenthesis):
- Workman’s compensation (Human Resources or Insurance)
- Agreements and contracts (Legal)
- Sustainability (Operations, Procurement or Supply Chain)
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (Operations or Security)
- Department of Transportation (Department of Transportation (DOT)) (Shipping)
I have made the mistake of asking about responsibility for a particular program and, unfortunately, because of my inquiry, ended up being responsible for that program. I urge you NOT to let this deter you from asking: At the end of the day, you should make sure that someone has responsibility for these items or risk being blamed when something goes wrong. Assigning responsibility is also one of the requirements of various EHS management systems (e.g., International Organization for Standardization or ISO 14001)[8].
2.5 Challenges
EHS personnel face several challenges including
- Understanding of multiple disciplines including accounting, biology, business, chemistry, finance, human resources, law, math, and physics.
- Various and numerous customers (i.e., not traditional retail customers, but employees, operations personnel, managers, investors, and regulators)
- People may only hear from you when there is bad news.
- The regulations and corresponding interpretations are continuing to grow and change.
It is the case that, in some companies, EHS is not perceived as important as other non-revenue-generating business functions, such as human resources, information technology, accounting. This perception may be because EHS is a newer business function; people do not see or understand the need. I think this is especially true for environmental, which tends to be more abstract than safety; it’s easier to understand why you do not want employees to get hurt, than it is to comprehend why you need to wait an extended time to get a piece of paper (i.e., air construction permit) before you can start construction.
2.6 For Additional Information
- “EPA History (1970 – 1985)” Environmental Protection Agency website accessed November 24, 2021 (https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/epa-history-1970-1985.html)
- “Foundation of Safety Science: A Century of Understanding Accidents and Disasters” by Sidney Dekker, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, Florida, 2019
2.7 References
[1] “How are Chemical Accident Prevention Program (CAPP) and Process Safety Management (PSM) Different?” Louisiana Law Blog website by Kean Miller accessed November 7, 2021 (https://www.louisianalawblog.com/process-safety-management/how-are-rmp-and-psm-different/#:~:text=Although%20the%20two%20programs%20have%20significant%20overlap%2C%20each,program%29%20requires%20development%20of%20a%20Chemical Accident Prevention Program (CAPP)%20%28the%20plan%29.)
[2] 29 Code of Federal Regulations Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1910.119 Appendix A and 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 68.130
[3] “Foundation of Safety Science: A Century of Understanding Accidents and Disasters” by Sidney Dekker, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, Florida, 2019
[4] “Foundation of Safety Science: A Century of Understanding Accidents and Disasters” by Sidney Dekker, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, Florida, 2019, page 2
[5] “About Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)” Occupational Safety and Health Administration website accessed November 24, 2021 (https://www.osha.gov/aboutosha).
[6] “The Job Safety Law of 1970: Its Passage Was Perilous” Department of Labor website, accessed November 24, 2021 (https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/osha)
[7] “EPA History (1970 – 1985)” Environmental Protection Agency website accessed November 24, 2021 (https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/epa-history-1970-1985.html)
[8] “ISO 14004 Environmental Management Systems – General Guidelines on Implementation”, Edition, 1/3/2016, by ISO, Section 5.3 Organizational Roles, Responsibilities and Authorities, page 18.
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