WHAT DOES AN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SAFETY TECHNICIAN DO?
Updated: Feb 7, 2025 - The Environmental Health and Safety Technician manages the inventory and compatibility of chemicals and flammable materials stored in lockers, ensuring that expired hazardous chemicals are removed promptly. This position oversees the proper labeling, containment, and transfer of hazardous waste to a designated 90-day storage area while coordinating waste removal with external handlers. Additionally, this role maintains acid vapor scrubbers, neutralization systems, and sink sumps, and assists in writing procedures for waste management tasks.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Environmental Health and Safety Technician
1. Environmental Health and Safety Technician Duties
- Audit Skills: Conduct equipment inspection audits in operating areas and report on performance.
- Reporting Skills: Develop and use reporting systems to track and report on compliance.
- Training & Documentation: Assist in the delivery and documentation of Safety Orientations.
- Access Control: Issue and update employee proximity cards, and maintain the access card database.
- Program Evaluation: Audit and report on use of safety programs, and propose means to track and correct deficiencies.
- Equipment Inspection: Inspect and arrange for service of safety and emergency equipment.
- Emergency Response Training: Train and maintain certification to become an active member of company emergency response teams.
- Compliance Reporting: Complete required internal and external compliance reporting and maintain files related to equipment inspection, required certifications, and service.
- Program Development: Assist the Safety Team in the development of new programs and enhancement of existing programs.
- Turnaround Participation: Participate in Turnaround-related work.
- Incident Investigation: Participate in incident investigations.
- Collaboration & Learning: Work with and learn from all members of the Safety team, and develop skills in each discipline of Safety for vacation/outage work coverage.
- Plant Audits: Participate in plant tours and give a Safety perspective to area audits.
2. Environmental Health and Safety Technician Details
- Program Facilitation: Facilitate site culture program, support site leading indicator implementation and drive safety initiative.
- Training & Development: Organize, develop and deliver EHS training plan (New EE/Contractor/EE refresher training etc.), EHS training courses, regulatory trainings based on training needs.
- System Improvement: Contribute to the improvement of the overall performance of the site PPTS and safety-integrated online system.
- Construction Safety: Contribute to the project construction safety, including construction contractor management, and support necessary government audit/review.
- Permit & Compliance: Drive site safe work permit and LOTO implementation, support safe work permit approval, identify gap and make program keep compliance and improvement.
- Waste Management: Support site environment program to handle daily hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste.
- Industrial Safety: Support site management of industrial safety, firefighting, chemical control, industrial hygiene, etc.
- Training & Policy Development: Assist in the development and implementation of training programs, policies, workplace instructions, and guidance documents related to EHS compliance issues.
- EHS Auditing: Conduct EHS audits, assessments, and inspections, and create proactive measures to prevent incidents.
- Policy & Procedure Development: Assist management in creating new policies, procedures, and training materials.
- Industrial Hygiene: Assist with conducting industrial hygiene sampling and surveys.
- Regulatory Support: Support regulatory requirements, and company site visits from regulatory agencies.
- Team Collaboration: Work effectively and efficiently in both team-based and independent working environments to reduce costs and add value to the organization.
3. Environmental Health and Safety Technician Responsibilities
- Inventory Management: Maintains inventory of all chemical and flammable storage lockers throughout the facility.
- Chemical Compatibility: Ensures that all chemicals stored within lockers are compatible.
- Chemical Disposal: Ensures that out-of-date hazardous chemicals are promptly removed.
- Waste Labeling & Containment: Ensures that all hazardous waste containers are properly labeled, in good condition, and on proper containment.
- Waste Collection Management: Manages satellite waste collection.
- Waste Container Management: Provides containers, labels, and ensures that containers are properly managed.
- Waste Transfer: Collects and transfers waste to 90-day storage area.
- Hazardous Waste Removal: Ensures hazardous waste is removed on a regular basis, stored correctly, and shipments are accurately prepared and documented each quarter.
- Waste Shipment Coordination: Coordinates waste shipment activities with outside waste handler/hauler.
- Waste Hauler Assistance: Assists waste hauler with the preparation and removal of waste from the facility.
- Scrubber & Neutralization Maintenance: Maintains and services acid vapor scrubber, neutralization, and acid rooms within permit conditions.
- Sump Monitoring & Maintenance: Ensures all sink sumps are monitored and cleaned on a regular basis.
- Evaporator Operation: Manages evaporator operation for reducing water content from liquid waste.
- Procedure Writing: Assists in writing operating procedures for the aforementioned tasks.
4. Environmental Health and Safety Technician Job Summary
- Regulatory Knowledge: Stay up-to-date on regulatory code changes and understand the implications to the business related to these changes.
- Regulatory Advice: Advise internal customers regarding regulatory compliance related to creation and research initiatives.
- Regulatory Problem Solving: Identify regulatory challenges relevant to commercial opportunities, and collaborate cross-functionally to solve them.
- SOP Development: Develop and maintain company SOPs.
- Documentation Support: Complete and deliver documentation to support external customer requirements.
- Customer Issue Identification: Identify issues relevant to customer opportunities.
- Customer Relationship Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external customers.
- Customer Requirement Knowledge: Obtain thorough knowledge of customer requirements.
- Process Improvement: Identify and implement opportunities for efficiencies with current processes.
- Customer Support: Deliver support on time, meeting customer expectations.
- Safety Meeting Participation: Participate in DDS meetings and follow through on safety-related issues.
- Process & Safety Improvement: Support areas across the plant to drive the adoption of 5S and use focused improvement techniques to contribute to the improvement of processes and site safety program.
- Best Practice Sharing: Develop best practices and share within the Safety Network.
5. Environmental Health and Safety Technician Accountabilities
- EHS Strategy: Responsible for evaluating, recommending, and implementing strategies to assure awareness of and compliance with environmental, occupational health, safety, and Biosafety standards.
- EHS Integration: Integrate Canton EHS activities with EBS policies and procedures.
- Budget Support: Support the achievement of the annual department budget.
- Committee Participation: Support and participate on site Safety and Environmental Committees.
- Training & Compliance: Lead training for environmental, health and life safety compliance programs.
- Record Keeping: Maintain all required environmental records and documentation.
- Incident Investigation: Participate in all incident and accident investigations.
- Compliance Evaluation: Evaluate workplace, equipment, and practices to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal government regulations.
- Safety Program Development: Support the development and execution of programs to achieve zero injury workplace.
- Compliance Reporting: Maintain and complete all compliance reporting obligations, including regulatory permits.
- Operational Knowledge: Develop operational knowledge and functional understanding of at least 2 key operational areas across the warehouse, plant and field.
- Routine Monitoring Support: Providing assistance to the EHS Department and EHS personnel on routine monitoring activities.
- Report Compilation: Compiling and/or reviewing reports and documents for submittal to government agencies.