Environmental Health and Safety

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There’s certainly no lack of challenges facing the EHS profession now and in the coming years, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey. Almost four in ten (39%) of ISHN subscribers say contending with an expanding workload is one of the biggest challenges they face on the job.

One factor behind the favorable job satisfaction found in the EHS ranks, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, could come down to the bottom line – salaries. Fifty-five percent of respondents expect “slightly higher” incomes in 2015, and 6% expect “much higher” salaries.

People exposed to asbestos from mining in Libby, Mont., show long-term changes in lung imaging and function tests, even with relatively low asbestos exposure, reports a study in the January Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

According to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, EHS department staffing should remain stable in most organizations in the coming year. Expectations for overall EHS department headcounts in ’15: only 5% see headcounts shrinking “slightly” and a scant 1% plan on “significant decreases.”

According to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, job satisfaction and job security both receive high marks from about two-thirds of respondents – 63% express satisfaction with their current work and 65% feel secure in their jobs.

About four in ten (42%) of the ISHN subscribers surveyed in the 2015 EHS State of the Nation poll say their safety and health resource allocation will increase in 2015; 53% say resource allocation will hold steady with 2014 funding levels; and only 5% say resources will be cut.

In an OSHA hazard alert, “Hydraulic Fracturing and Flowback Hazards Other than Respirable Silica,” (issued in late 2014), the agency states that more workers are potentially exposed to the hazards created by hydraulic fracturing and flowback operations due to the large increase in the number of these operations in the past decade.