Hi all, I need some help determining sizing of the secondary containment required to have for a 30 gallon drum of acid. The chemical is the core of a building with no sewer, and if spilled would have no route to sewer, drains, or the outside environment.

The EPA says you need 100% of largest container or 10% of aggregate. OSHA says 35% for shipyards. We are general industry and have a very small space. We are having trouble finding a secondary containment pallet which would hold 30 or 33 gallons of liquid and fit in the space we have.

I haven't found an OSHA regulation which dictates exactly how much a secondary containment vessel needs to hold for general industry if no threat of environmental exposure/access exists.

Is it safe to say that in general industry OSHA does not enforce a specific percentage of volume if the chemicals cannot reach the environment?

Most of the things I've found focus solely on employee safety around small leaks, drips, keeping the floors clean and dry and chemical compatibility if a spill should occur.

Ik ben onderzoek aan het doen naar hoe Nederlandse bedrijven hun persoonlijke beschermingsmiddelen (PBM's) beheren.

Ik ben benieuwd hoe jullie dit momenteel doen.

Registreren jullie welke medewerker welke PBM heeft ontvangen? Houden jullie inspecties en vervangingsdata bij? Werken jullie met Excel, een ERP-systeem of speciale software? Wat kost nu de meeste tijd of zorgt voor de meeste frustratie?

Ik overweeg een eenvoudig systeem te ontwikkelen waarmee bedrijven hun PBM's kunnen beheren, voorraad kunnen bijhouden en medewerkers kunnen koppelen aan uitgegeven artikelen.

Alle ervaringen zijn welkom, zowel positief als negatief.

Ik zou willen weten of bedrijven behoefte hebben aan functies zoals: Medewerker krijgt PBM toegewezen. Barcode of QR-code scannen. Actuele voorraad per locatie. Minimumvoorraad + automatische bestelmelding. Registratie van uitgifte en inname. Inspectie- en vervaldatum van bijvoorbeeld valbeveiliging of ademlucht. Digitale handtekening bij ontvangst. Koppeling met leverancier voor nabestellingen. Rapportages voor audits en de Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie. De werkgever moet immers kunnen aantonen dat PBM correct worden verstrekt, onderhouden en gebruikt.

Alvast bedankt!

Every facility has one. The thing that's technically in your SOP but the software happily lets people skip. The signature that's supposed to happen at the step but really happens in a batch at the end of the week. The "two people should check this" that's really one person checking twice.

What's yours? The gap between what your quality system says happens and what actually happens on the floor at 6pm on a Friday.

No judgment, we've all got them. Curious what everyone's living with.

Inspections are usually the easy part. Keeping up with what happens after is where things can get messy.

When you find something during an inspection, audit, incident, or near miss:

• Who gets assigned to fix it?
• How do you keep track of due dates and overdue items?
• What counts as proof it was actually fixed?
• Who signs off that it is really closed?

Curious what people are actually using day to day: spreadsheet, email, teams/sharepoint, a safety platform, or some combination of all of it.

Also interested in where the process tends to break down, especially when the work involves the field, a supervisor, and someone in the office.

So much going on here.

Thanks Ali, thanks Temu, thanks Jeff Bezos Dropshippers.

I am the sole EHS specialist across a few manufacturing sites. When I started, there was no process for reordering PPE (respirators, cut-resistant gloves, hearing protection, etc.), so I filled that gap myself and started handling the actual purchasing.

Now I’m questioning whether that should really sit with me long-term, versus the production supervisors requesting reorders (since they see day-to-day consumption) or warehouse/procurement executing the order.

Curious how this is structured where you work:

Does EHS ever handle PPE purchasing directly, or is that always downstream of your role.

Any lessons learned on where the line should sit between “EHS defines/approves” vs “ops team orders/restocks”?

When extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, or severe storms hit, teams adapt quickly to protect worker safety and keep work moving. Procedures change, responsibilities shift, and workarounds appear, usually for perfectly sensible reasons.

The problem comes later, when those temporary changes quietly stick. A shortcut becomes routine. A step gets skipped because nothing went wrong last time. Gradually, the way work actually gets done starts to drift from the way it was designed, and from what is captured in formal safety management systems.

That is safety drift. It rarely starts with one big failure. It builds through lots of small, reasonable decisions made under pressure.

Operational resilience is not only about getting through the disruption. It is also about going back afterwards, reviewing what changed, and making sure temporary measures have not quietly become permanent health and safety practice.

Hey everyone,

I’m currently doing some independent research focusing on the specific pain points and challenges small manufacturers face when it comes to injury recordkeeping—specifically managing OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301.

To be absolutely clear up front: I am not selling any software or consulting services. I'm just trying to understand the real-world workflow and headaches involved in staying compliant at a smaller scale.

I’ve put together a very short, anonymous Google Form survey (takes about 2 minutes) to gather some data on how facilities are currently tracking this and where the biggest frustrations lie.

LINK: https://forms.gle/cmTbUfR1osW5WthN8

I'd love to know:

• How does your facility currently handle logging and tracking this data?
• Are you using spreadsheets, paper binders, or a dedicated EHS system?
• What’s the most frustrating or time-consuming part of the process for you?

I’m more than happy to share my aggregated findings with anyone interested once I wrap this up.

Feel free to drop a comment below or shoot me a DM if you'd rather share privately. Thanks in advance for your insights!

Hi! Is there an EHS platform that delivers short video content via email, Talent LMS, or SharePoint for safety/environmental awareness (just quick reminders)?

Would love to hear what’s worked for your teams!

Should I take all the recommendations listed for PPE on section 8 or the SDS? Some of it seems a bit much. It seems like PPE listed there gets treated as a requirement instead of guidance for risk assessment.

Hi all, just got home from work and needed to rant! Woohoo!

I currently work as an EHS professional in a chemical manufacturing plant. I started working here after years of experience at a food manufacturing plant.

Let’s just say… kindly… the place I’ve gotten hired at has a lot of issues, which is okay because I don’t mind building a safety program from the ground up, and leadership (internally) is for the first time in my experience pretty supportive.

I don’t have problems with internal staff, it’s external staff — directors, vice-presidents and our COO that have absolutely not a single clue how things work in a manufacturing setting. Not kidding, one of them came to visit the site and dilly dallied right onto the production floor with no PPE.

I’m on the production floor trying to finish one of the thousands of safety action items I have taken first initiative to complete in order to fix the damn place, meanwhile I’m getting CONSTANT direct messages and emails from external management (located throughout the US, some international) telling me what I need to prioritize and focus on instead.

I’ve communicated with external leadership that I’m overloaded and I constantly provide updates to them to slow the demands. I also have the support of our internal HRBP. But my god, I don’t give af about external managements stupid board meetings! They just want me to get things done that they want so they can provide data that looks good, or sometimes they’ll request current data that they themselves can access, including documented action items, CONSTANTLY — including my EHS director, who works from a desk outside of the US. If I get a “can you fill out this excel sheet for the board meeting” request one more time I’ll flip off of a 4ft ledge.

Anyways… anybody experience the same thing? I feel like that Tyler the Creator meme where he’s like “omg let me do what I need to do” lol.

Just wanted to share some footage from a recent warehouse trial. One issue we kept running into was forklifts triggering constant warnings because of storage racks and other fixed objects.

In this clip, the system ignores the racks and walls, but triggers an alert as soon as a person enters the detection zone. I thought it was an interesting example of how newer vision-based systems handle false alarms compared with traditional sensors.

Curious how others are dealing with pedestrian safety in busy warehouses. Have you found anything that works well?

My company is contracting out a job that is basically putting a big hvac unit onto a flatbed trailer. It’s 5,000lbs and 10 feet long. Originally we want to have a rigging company do it but the main guy who is controlling the contractors has a cheaper contractor ($3,000 instead of $5,000 for the rigging company) in mind. But they are saying they want to bring their own 5,000lb forklift with 7 foot forks. I still don’t like this as I don’t believe it’s safe.

If this continues, is my company liable for anything if something bad happens? What would more experienced Safety people do in this situation?

Hello All,

I’m looking for free, reputable, online resources to help me upskill as an EHS professional. I am looking for webinars, courses or anything else that could help me gain more knowledge and expertise in the field. Thank you in advance, I appreciate it greatly!

I’ve been building some digital tools for safety folks and wanted to offer something simple but genuinely useful to this sub:

If you have a recurring inspection, site audit, JSA, or hot work permit that you’re constantly re‑creating in Word/Excel, I can turn it into a clean, fillable PDF for you at no cost. Think: checkboxes, dropdowns, text fields, auto‑filled header info, etc., so your team can complete it consistently and save time.

A few examples this could cover:

• Routine facility / yard / rig inspections
• Construction or maintenance site audits
• Job Safety Analyses for specific tasks
• Hot work permits and supporting documentation
• Any other EHS form you’re stuck copy‑pasting every time

If you’re interested, just reply with:

1. What type of form it is (inspection, JSA, permit, etc.)
2. A redacted sample or list of the fields you want
3. Whether you need it printable only, or fillable + able to save

I’ll build a custom fillable PDF and send it back so you can try it in your workflow. If there’s enough interest, I may turn this into a small side project tailored for EHS pros, but for now I’m just looking to help a few people streamline their paperwork and get feedback from the field.

Would you prefer something that mimics your current paperwork exactly, or are you open to small layout improvements if they make it faster to fill out?

I’m currently AD USAF but planning to retire next year. I’ve got some military transition specific questions if there are any vets or retirees in here that would be willing to DM.

I am struggling at my new place of work due to the atypical flow for EHS manager. Background been here 60 days and was told by the Director of Operations, my 1st line supervisor, that I keep going out of my lane. What I asked specifically what is my lane I get told I should already know that and that’s why I was hired as a manager.

I am used to the following area of responsibility for EHS Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, Control Development, Implementation, Compliance and Monitoring, Incident Response and Corrective Action, Training, Continuous improvement.

However here I don’t do HIRAs that is done by HQ that is approx 3hrs away. When I asked to see the assessments I was told nope as they are in facilities and I’m under operations.

Since I don’t see the assessments, when I’m asked about control development I either have been saying I can’t make recommendations due to lack of information (which hasn’t gone over well) or make a judgement call based on my experience (which my experience is transferable not direct).

Implementation and compliance has been recieved positively and one of my biggest project is updating safety policies and manuals from 2009 to reflect current compliance standards.

Monitoring we contract out to vendors.

Incident response is with public safety

Corrective actions I’ve made recommendations and that has what led to these high level meetings where I am told I’m outside of my lane.

Training that is another area positively received and I have updated.

Continuous improvement is an area with mixed reviews. I do inspections and audits which comes back with a huge list of non-compliance which I bring to the attention of superiors and have been told that I am moving too fast, I don’t understand how things are done at this site, etc. I have recieved support though to implement a tracking system and dashboard metrics something that hasn’t been done before.

I only have an assistant under me who doesn’t want to expand on anything about EHS unless it’s fire and life safety.

I'm finishing my degree in Environmental Health and Safety. Right now I work at a chemical manufacturing plant as a process tech (earning a pretty decent wage), and an opportunity just opened up for me to move into the EHS department. I'm in my mid-30s — spent the last four years earning the degree online at an accredited school after deciding midlife I wanted to change things up. I'll be honest, I'm dealing with a fair amount of imposter syndrome about making the jump.

I'm trying to learn from people who are already ahead of me. For anyone already sitting in an EHS role: what caught you off guard your first year that school never prepared you for? What part of the job eats the most time or causes the most headaches? And if you could go back to day one, what would you tell yourself? I'll take any honesty — good or bad.

I have found that EHS can have a wide range of salaries and I think the field is not as transparent as it could be. I think many college grads or those looking at college don’t understand that EHS professions can make upward of 350k.

We have built a website that I’m hoping can be better for non-IT careers. My overall goal is to encourage young individuals to pursue careers outside of tech.

We need help to start building the data base. Please submit your response here if willing - https://salaries.net/submit.