Introduction To Environmental Safety

What is Environmental Safety ?

Believe it or not, it’s one of the most vital areas of health and safety practices. However, the term “environmental” can imply that somehow it only takes place outdoors, which is far from the case.

The most common definition of environmental safety is practices, policies, and procedures that ensure the safety and well-being of anyone in the immediate area. This can include safety in terms of proper waste disposal, containment and storage of potentially toxic chemicals and much more.

 

Three Primary Areas of Environmental Safety ?

Though “environmental safety” is a rather nebulous term, there are three primary areas where environmental safety is of particular concern. They are:

• Occupational safety and health

• Environmental control

• Chemical safety

Each of these areas is a discipline unto its own when it comes to environmental safety, but these are the areas that environmental safety is primarily focused on.

Occupational safety and health practices are focused on environmental safety in the workplace, thereby reducing risks to employees in any given workplace. After all, many workplaces have dangerous chemicals, gases/fumes, waste and other potential threats to the health and safety of workers.

Environmental control, naturally, is concerned with preventing pollution and other threats to the environment and anyone that may be affected by it. For instance, preventing dumping of chemicals into the local ecosystem or ensuring proper management of waste materials.

Chemical safety, concerns the safe storage, use, disposal and so on of various chemicals.

Each of these areas is governed by laws at the municipal, state and federal level, and compliance with those regulations is of vital importance to many businesses.

 

 

Importance Of Environmental Safety ?

Though environmental safety certainly makes demands of businesses in terms of costs of compliance, the reality is that doing so is imperative. There are regulatory consequences of noncompliance and negligence, liabilities in civil suits as well as potential moral hazards in not observing environmental safety practices.

For instance, look up a listing of the nation’s SUPERFUND sites. Nearly all of these areas require extensive cleanup and rehabilitation, which is paid for by the taxpayers. Many of them exist due to negligence or malfeasance in the environmental safety practices on the part of various corporations.

Some of the worst man-made disasters were caused by inadequate environmental safety measures and lawsuits are filed all the time by injured workers or the estates of workers, residents near industrial operations and by regulatory authorities when companies fail to observe proper environmental safety.

Not only do businesses and organizations have a legal obligation to observe environmental safety practices, they also have an interest in doing so to avoid liabilities as well as a moral obligation.

 

Observing Environmental Safety Is A must :

Environmental safety, just like any other form of safety or compliance, requires being observant and compliant at all times to ensure the safety of your workers and anyone that resides in the area. Doing so minimizes liabilities and protects one of your most valuable assets – your employees.

However, observing environmental safety is typically easy in that doing so requires the observation of certain practices and procedures. Once those policies and procedures are implemented, adhering to them becomes a matter of habit, just as it is in compliance with any regulation or industry best practices.

The practical upshot, of course, is a cleaner, safer workplace, goodwill in the local community and keeping on the good side of regulators, employees and much more.