Almost 39 years to the day (July 9, 1970) President Nixon promised a reorganization of our environmental policies with the creation of the EPA.  The EPA was and is instrumental in protecting our environmental and the health and safety of our citizens from the hazards associated with pollution and harmful chemicals.

With the passage of 40 years has come the realization by most companies that an Environmental Health & Safety program (EHS) is not just a requirement to follow the law, it makes economic and sociopolitical sense.  Today's EHS programs are extremely refined to specific industries out of necessity, practicality and economic sense - or so one would think.

In April 2009, after the longest environmental crimes trial in history (to date), 4 managers were sentenced to federal prison and the company fined $8 million for environmental violations including "systematically altering accident scenes and concealing serious worker injuries from health and safety inspectors."  In U.S. v. Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company, et al., the US EPA found that Atlantic States, a subsidiary of McWane Industries one of the world's largest makers of cast-iron water and sewer pipes, violating OHSA, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and numerous other health and safety issues.

Yes unbelievably such blatant and egregious violations of Health & Safety regulations or a complete lack thereof, occur daily.

I would like to also bring to the attention of those companies with a EHS program - that manufacture and distribute electronic products including: batteries, toys, computers, cell phones, medical devices, etc. to Europe and Asian countries.  European regulators are cracking down on violators and a company that cannot 'defend' its product (i.e. does not have an adequate EHS program in place) can have its product removed from the marketplace and suffer criminal and civil fines. 

Torben Norlem, Chief Counsel of Intertek's Health and Environmental Services stated that "While many companies are highly attentive to global compliance requirements of today and tomorrow, many or not." 

Intertek Groupwas found in violation of European environmental regulations (RoHS) and its product - toys - were banned from the marketplace.

Ed