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Protecting Employees from Dangerous Chemicals

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Millions of workers in a number of industries are exposed to chemicals every day. While many of these chemicals may be harmful, only a small number are regulated in the workplace.

Because of this, employees suffer more than 190,000 illnesses and 50,000 deaths annually—all related to chemical exposures. Workplace chemical exposures have been linked to cancers as well as lung, kidney, skin, heart, stomach, brain, nerve and reproductive diseases, according to the United States Department of Labor.

An effective system for managing chemicals in the workplace is important. Ideally, a program would go beyond basic Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) standards for compliance and would attempt to reduce or eliminate chemical hazards at the source through informed substitution.

An online toolkit, provided by OSHA, can help businesses improve the safety of their workers by eliminating or reducing hazardous chemicals. Other benefits are also created, including:

  • Cost Savings—reduced expenses and future risks.
  • Efficiency—improved performance.
  • Industry Leadership—innovation helps a company stay competitive.
  • Corporate Stewardship—Advancing socially responsible practices.

Considering safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals is not new, but a good program allows employers, workers and decision-makers to identify solutions rather than continuing to focus on the problem. This approach can also reduce costs and keep businesses competitive. On the other hand, continuing to assess the problem has no economic benefit, according to OSHA.

“Informed substitution,” or replacing hazardous substances with safer alternatives, is the goal of a solutions-oriented approach to chemical management, OSHA said. It involves identifying alternatives and evaluating safety hazards, any potential trade-offs, and their technical and economic feasibility. A “safer alternative” is an option that is less hazardous for workers than the existing method or solution used. This could mean choosing not to continue an activity altogether. It also might include using chemical substitutes, products or process redesigns that eliminate the need for specific hazardous chemicals.

Seven Step Process

To help with the process, OSHA has developed a seven-step procedure to give employers and workers the information and guidance needed for informed substitution in the workplace.

In step 1, “engage,” for example, OSHA offers these considerations for developing a plan:

Key Questions

  • How will workers be involved in the team and throughout the planning process?
  • Who should be involved in developing the work plan and setting goals for transitioning to safer chemicals—managers, supply chain partners, customers, marketers, health and safety committee members, occupational health nurse or physician, occupational health consultant?
  • What goals should be included in the plan? Consider specific goals such as eliminate carcinogens, reduce the use of hazardous chemicals by a certain percentage in a set number of years, substitute chemicals of concern from government or sector lists, etc.
  • What policies, tasks, responsibilities, deadlines should be included in the plan?
  • What particular drivers should you be aware of in developing the plan (existing or new laws, consumer pressures, new science)?
  • How will external stakeholders be involved?

To read more and access OSHA’s seven-step plan and toolkit go to:

https://www.osha.gov/dsg/safer_chemicals/index.html

Construction Fraud Costs An Estimated $860 Billion

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Infrastructure Construction

Fraud in the construction business is “commonplace and in some cases endemic across Australia, Canada, India, the UK and the US,” according to a new report from Grant Thornton, amassing a global price tag of up to $860 billion today—between 5% and 10% of total revenues. The accounting and advisory group projects that annual fraud cost in the sector could rise to .

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5 trillion by 2025.

“The greatest threat of fraud comes from within—from employees and senior management,” said David Malamed, fraud expert at Grant Thornton Canada.

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While the risk of insider fraud is highest, the odds of fraud in a construction project increase drastically with the number of stakeholders.

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The primary sources of major frauds in the sector include billing fraud, bid rigging, money laundering or tax avoidance, theft or substitution of materials, bribery or corruption, false representation (of documents, figures, certificates), change order manipulation and fictitious vendors, LiveMint reported.

“Individuals and organizations need to invest the time and money to put a fraud prevention and detection plan into action before they become a victim,” said Bo Mocherniak, Grant Thornton’s national leader for construction, real estate and hospitality. “The push for fraud prevention requires strong governance and leadership, and must start at the very top of the organization.”

But one of the primary nations at risk offered promising news for public risk managers this month on the efficacy of anti-corruption efforts in the sector. In Canada, the Quebec government announced a $240-million savings on road contracts alone for the first 10 months of the year. According to the Globe and Mail, Minister of Transportation Sylvain Gaudreault said the building and maintenance of roads and bridges in the province has dropped 16% below the estimated costs projected for 2013, crediting the battle against corruption and collusion for forcing builders and engineering firms to play by a tougher set of rules.

Gaudreault’s administration has focused on more rigorous oversight and enforcement to minimize graft losses over the past year. Moves are currently on hold in the formation of a formal transportation agency tasked with approving and monitoring road construction and maintenance contracts, but the minister has hired 321 employees – including 118 engineers – to “reinforce” the expertise in his department. The local government has also promised legislation in the coming weeks aimed at recovering at least part of the money obtained by construction and engineering firms through collusion and fraud, the Globe and Mail reported.

Looking Beyond Compliance When Assessing Security

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For a long time now, security evangelists have railed against the dangers of relying only on checkbox compliance. They warn that if you focus too much on the list of requirements, you’re bound to miss risks that may not actually be covered in rules and regulations.

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That’s why organizations need to start evaluating effectiveness alongside these audits, in order to get a more holistic view into the systems they are assessing.

“Organizations are so focused on meeting the letter of the regulations and mandates that they lose sight of the risks that the individual controls in the mandates are intended to mitigate,” explained security consultant Brian Musthaler in a recent blog post.

It’s a theme revisited in a ComputerWorld article, which cited a survey showing that just 17% of organizations have what they consider a mature risk management program—i.e., one that goes beyond ticking off items on an audit list. The maturation to risk-based security, the article emphasizes, is “about a not so insignificant shift in objectives—from compliance to making systems more resilient to attack.”

The principle holds true not just when evaluating and shoring up in-house infrastructure. It also applies to how enterprises evaluate partners. As security organizations seek to find a sane way to measure the IT security stance of partners and vendors, the most common first step is to do it by following a requirements checklist or questionnaire, or by asking for an auditor’s attestation of compliance with some kind of standard. Assessment guidance from standards like the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 16, ISO 27001, and FedRAMP all come to mind here.

Serving as a compendium of best practices, measuring against these standards can give good indicators of where to focus resources and are a good place to start your evaluation. The challenge is that while necessary, using these methods alone for assessing security risks is not sufficient. A company may be compliant with all the appropriate regulations and have excellent security policies but may be completely ineffective in the day-to-day implementation of these policies—rarely does a questionnaire ask how many compromised servers a provider is currently running on its network. Also, no matter how complete a checklist or audit is, its results are only a point in time reflection and can’t measure the dynamic nature of the risks it is meant to assess for the duration of the business partnership. Even if a penetration test or vulnerability scan is included as part of a vendor assessment, it cannot reveal issues that may appear the following week.

Complimenting an audit with a continuous evaluation of security effectiveness allows organizations to augment their view into the security risks of the extended enterprise. In addition to gaining visibility into the weaknesses of a network, a data-driven, evidence-based assessment can allow organizations to proactively mitigate new risks as they emerge and identify issues that a regulatory audit was not designed to catch.

By taking these steps, organizations can move towards a mature, risk-based security model and away from the more simple checkbox mentality.

Midwest Tornado Insured Losses Could Top $1B

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A series of tornadoes in the Midwest on Sunday that killed six, levelled homes and businesses and left tens of thousands without power may top $1 billion in insured losses, according to risk modeller RMS.

The New York Times reported that on Nov. 18, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn declared seven counties disaster areas and said he would seek relief funding from state and federal agencies. He also said the series of tornadoes were the deadliest to occur in the state in November.

Matthew Nielsen, director of model product management at RMS said in an email that while damage estimates are far from final, “There is a good chance that Sunday’s outbreak will likely rank as one of the top five most significant November outbreaks since 1950.”

The magnitude and severity of the tornado outbreak was driven by two factors, he said, “Unseasonably strong thermodynamic instability and unusually strong wind shear throughout the depth of the atmosphere.”

Robert P. Hartwig, Ph.D., president of the Insurance Information Institute said from the Chicago airport, en route to assess the tornado damage first hand, that there is “No question that it will at least be the second costliest tornado event of the year.” The largest event this year was the Moore, Okla., tornadoes, which approached $1.6 billion in insured losses. By comparison, damage from the Midwest tornadoes is spread over a wider area, impacting Illinois, Michigan and Indiana.

“There are thousands of damaged structures throughout the states that were hit—residential and commercial,” he said. “What’s difficult to tell at this point is the extent of commercial damage and that can really drive up the losses. Not only are commercial structures more expensive, but there is often a business interruption component as well.”

He explained that insured losses for tornadoes are typically higher than those for floods. Because there was no flooding involved, more of the losses would be covered by insurance, meaning a faster recovery. “The vast majority of property owners here are going to have insurance coverage. Uninsured losses may include some business interruption loss, vehicles that didn’t carry comprehensive coverage and uninsured structures,” he said.

As is generally the case after tornadoes, “Most people will be getting checks [from their insurers] very quickly, which will help them with temporary living expenses. It will also help them make initial repairs more quickly and provide funds for debris removal so that rebuilding can start,” Hartwig said.