EH&S Month Part 1: EH&S Everyday
August 2nd, 2021
As I look around me with a lens toward Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S), it is easy to take for granted how far the EH&S movement has come. It’s easy to find example in the most basic areas of everyday life.
Consider the toilet flush. Historically, this untreated waste would have been dumped out a window, trenched out of town to someone else’s water supply, or wasted through a hole in the ground. Today, a flushed toilet conveys wastewater through a series of pipes and pump stations to a state-of-the-art treatment system that is permitted to specific treatment standards and operated by specially trained and licensed wastewater treatment operators.
There’ also AC. We can sit inside and enjoy air conditioning from refrigerants that contribute less and less to ozone depletion because of the phase out of harmful refrigerants
And of course, the fuel we burn in our vehicles no longer contains lead (yes, you once could purchase leaded gasoline at the corner gas station). As a consumer we have options in purchasing a vehicle to not only consider better fuel efficiency but also to select a fully electric vehicle.
I spend my week at work and know my employer has workplace procedures, trainings, inspections, and expectations to ensure the health and safety of its employees. I know the chemicals I will interact with at work (and at home) and I know the potential impact and safety controls to limit those impacts because of labeling and safety data sheets. Through workplace health and safety practices and training, I can recognize and mitigate hazards such as working from heights, electrical hazards, and respiratory hazards.
Both EPA and OSHA were established in the early 1970s. About a decade later, HRP was founded to serve the environmental needs of the regulated community subject to the newly-enacted Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Since that time EPA, OSHA, HRP and our profession has advanced in the recognition, understanding, controls and approach to EH&S issues and compliance.
During the month of August, HRP will be hosting EH&S month! During this time, we will publish a weekly blog from our EH&S practitioners, each at a different point in their career, relative to the past, present and future of EH&S. We will focus many of our social media efforts on EH&S topics to further highlight the field of EH&S. Be sure to tune in and share your perspective as well as we can all join together and move the EH&S environment forward!
Jackie Baxley, PE, EH&S Practice Leader at HRP Associates, Inc.
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