“In limits, there is freedom.” — Julia Cameron There is great comfort in knowing that even the most hazardous substances have safe limits. One molecule of a substance is not enough to be hazardous. However, there is some concentration—especially for gases and vapors—that is too high to be exposed to safely. A lot of effort [...]
“If you don’t live up to somebody’s standards, you get hammered.” — Anthony Rendon I drive a 2006 Toyota Corolla. When I bought it in 2008, the odometer read 11,499 miles. In 2013, when the odometer crossed the 100,000-mile threshold, I declared my hope to reach 250,000 miles. The car is now closing in on [...]
“Give me a 15-foot crocodile any day over a bee.” — Bindi Irwin We recently had an unexpected hazard appear outside our office. Unexpected by us, our neighbors, and the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department, at least. A hive of bees covered the fire hydrant outside our front door. From across the street, neighbors carefully [...]
“You will die but the carbon will not; its career does not end with you.” — Jacob Bronowski A few months ago, I wrote about a project that Bluefield was undertaking to understand the carbon dioxide levels in and around alcohol fermenters. Particularly the fermenters in craft distilleries and microbreweries. I promised to keep everyone [...]
“It was not uncommon; it’s what they do. But there was something going on that was different.” — C.W.Sigman, Director of Kanawha County Emergency Management At about 9:30 am on Wednesday morning, April 22, 2026, two chemicals reacted to form hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas, at the small Catalyst Refiners facility in Institute, West Virginia. [...]
“The only thing that saves us from bureaucracy is its inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.” — Eugene McCarthy A client recently posed this question: “Why do you think the EPA is more willing to update its regulations than OSHA?” Is it? We gave a glib answer – resources – but [...]
“Ambivalence is like carbon monoxide – undetectable yet deadly.” — Cherie Carter-Scott World Fertilizer published an article in its March 2026 issue on “An Overlooked Process Hazard” in the production of ammonia fertilizers. It seems to me that this hazard has broader implications, beyond fertilizer production. Flammable liquids and flammable gases are all covered by [...]
“It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. OSHA requires incident reports. For recordable injuries or illnesses, OSHA requires that a 301 Form, Injury and Illness Incident Report, be completed, per 29 CFR 1904.29(a). For workplaces with PSM-covered [...]
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” — Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride (1987) I, like many older Americans, worry about my blood pressure enough to check it regularly. And like most people who check their blood pressure regularly, I know what [...]
“I have so much paperwork. I’m afraid my paperwork has paperwork.” — Gabrielle Zevin One of the key differences between OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) standard and the EPA’s Risk Management Planning (RMP) rule is the RMP rule’s requirement to submit documentation to the EPA. OSHA has no similar requirement for submission. If OSHA wants [...]
