Our Product and Company News

Software Updates for March 2017

ERA Environmental is committed to providing your business with EH&S software that lasts a lifetime. Our team of researchers and scientists work every day to roll out upgrades, new reports, and improvements. Every month we'll publish a summary of these new features here for you. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com. 

Waste

• Improvement: enhanced calculation for waste collected from multiple departments now implemented. This improvement mainly applies to facilities which collect waste from multiple Paint/Purge processes in different departments all together. The new capability allows them to distribute the total waste to each department and contributing process based on Usage Ratio and a maximum solvent recovery percentage.

Combustion

• Interface Addition: The ability to add Boiler Groups to the Fuels Edit option, as well as the ability for "Add to Archive" windows to assign a single HHV to multiple boilers in one entry 

Finishing / Coating

• Interface Addition: New options have been added for importing usage and distributing based on production records. New options added simplify the procedure and reduce tracking requirements for production. 
• Interface Addition: Additional protections have been added for cost centers to prevent duplicate sources or groups from being added to a cost center setup.

Training

• New Addition: When setting up training, the days before completion (DAC) and the days after completion(DAC) fields will allow a user to set when a training can be completed. This feature can either issue a warning or not in allowing a training to be completed if the completion date is outside of the range set by the DAC and DBC.
• Additional info: The goal is to provide better guidance for the scheduling of training - so that there's a gap before and after the carrying out of the training. An additional reason is in order to better guide clients as regards OSHA regulations, which indicate a need for PPE training every year. This prevents the delivery of training at too early a date. 
• New Addition: Originally, when importing training events into the system, a typo in the subject name would be permitted, potentially leading to the creation of a new subject with an incorrect name. Now, when importing, the user will be warned of the creation of a new subject. Additional info: the software will show the user on the error table that "subject x" is about to be created and it does it for multiple courses at the same time. 
  

BPM / PSM 

• New Addition: A "Loading" GIF was added and appears every time the "ADD NEW" button is clicked.
• New Addition: "Edit" shows in the process bar at all times. 
• New Addition: Exist point from a Dynamic List is now available. Based on the answer picked on a Dynamic List, the process will continue to a step specified as the exit point of the Dynamic List. For instance, if the answer is a simple yes or no on the Dynamic List, yes will point to A and no will point to B.
  
  

Document Management

• New Addition: When a user attaches a document via any module other than the document management module, the document will now include some reference of where the document came from.

NPRI

• Processing Change: New improvements added, designed to better include processing from the water module.
• Interface Change: Both water and waste are now displayed in the main NPRI summary grid as well as "Details by Product" for each chemical.

Regulatory Updates for March 2017

Canada - Federal

Domestic Substances List (DSL)

The Domestic Substance List has been amended by adding the following chemicals

• Methanol, potassium salt (1:1) - (CAS:865-33-8 N) 
• Butanedioic acid, polymer with 1,4-butanediol - (CAS:25777-14-4 N-P)
• 2,4,8,10-Tetraoxa-3,9-diphosphaspiro[5.5]undecane, 3,9-bis[2,6-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl)-4-methylphenoxy] - (CAS: 80693-00-1 N)
• Formic acid, compd. with aziridine homopolymer - (CAS:105689-91-6 N)
• 1,4-Cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid, polymer with 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-propanediol, 2,5-furandione and 1,2-propanediol - (CAS:145417-47-6 N-P)
• Urethane prepolymer - (CAS:150409-28-2 N)
• 2-Propenoic acid, polymer with ethene and ethenyl acetate, C18-22-alkyl esters - (CAS:1440950-37-7 N-P)
• C12-20, 1,2,2,6,6-pentamethyl-4- piperidinyl esters - (CAS:1357160-95-2 N-S)

 

Non-Domestic Substances List (NDSL)

The Non Domestic Substance List has been amended by removing the following chemicals:

• Methanol, potassium salt (1:1) - (CAS:865-33-8) 
• Butanedioic acid, polymer with 1,4-butanediol - (CAS:25777-14-4)
• 2,4,8,10-Tetraoxa-3,9-diphosphaspiro[5.5]undecane, 3,9-bis[2,6-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl)-4-methylphenoxy] - (CAS:80693-00-1)
• 1,4-Cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid, polymer with 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-propanediol, 2,5-furandione and 1,2-propanediol - (CAS:145417-47-6) 

Your ERA-EMS and reporting functions have already been updated to reflect these changes.

Software Updates for February 2017

ERA Environmental is committed to providing your business with EH&S software that lasts a lifetime. Our team of researchers and scientists work every day to roll out upgrades, new reports, and improvements. Every month we'll publish a summary of these new features here for you. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com. 

General

• All Modules, Chemical Emissions Summary, Rolling 24 Months by Group: New capabilities have been added to display lb/hour averages and limits to this report. For permit compliance, users can now display monthly, 12-month rolling, and lb/hour emissions per chemical with limits for each group. This can be used for any permit compliance requirement, and is especially useful for Texas MAERT compliance demonstration.

Waste

• Waste Import - Distribution by Group: New functionality has been added for waste imports when distributing waste to multiple sources and applying a maximum distribution for Solvent sources. There is new "Reprocess all" checkbox at the Group level which automates the distribution calculation when accounting for multiple shipments within a month. 

Training

• Subject Creation Prompt: When Importing a training event, if the subject was not specified in the system,the system previously created them by default. This addition warns the user regarding subject creation.This helps to prevent spelling mistakes in the import.
• Duplicate Name Fix: When Importing a training event, the system previously name the event twice. For instance, a training event would be called "Subject A - Subject A". This fix ensures the title is only inputted once. 

Finishing / Coating

• Usage Import - Distribution by Production: A new option has been added for further automation when importing usage and distributing by production records. Users can now pre-select the destination source or group for distribution based on production records.

Compliace

• Notifications Compliance Widget: This widget is now displaying events based on the criteria listed below: 
  1. User logged in must have a contact associated with their user account.
  2. User must be “Assigned To” contact for task(s).
  a. Note: If the user has a contact and employee record, and the employee is a supervisor for one or many other employees, the user can also view and filter for tasks assigned to the employees that they supervise.
  3. Note: The event will ONLY be displayed in the widgets if the user is the Assigned to contact OR a supervisor of an Assigned to contact.
  4. The Widget will only display events due within the next two weeks.
• Events Reminder Widget: The Widget is now displaying events based on the criteria listed below: 
  1. User logged in must have a contact associated with their user account
  2. User must be “Assigned To” contact for task(s).
  a. Note: If the user has a contact and employee record, and the employee is a supervisor for one or many other employees, the user can also view and filter for tasks assigned to the employees that they supervise.
  3. Note: The event will ONLY be displayed in the widgets if the user is the Assigned to contact OR a supervisor of an Assigned to contact.
  4. The Widget will only display events due within the next two weeks.

Inspection

• User will have the option to edit a form in incident dynamic templates when we use simplified panle by moving between forms. 
• Main gird on new dynamic form for Masonite can be updated based on the information added on the dynamic form. 
• S4, S5 and S6 reports have been updated to be able to show multiple sections of body parts, incident type, injury type and object involved. 

Tier II Report

• Organization and User Interface Upgrade: The Tier II processing page has been reorganized to streamline processing options and to retain records year-on-year. Processing is now completed through a wizard, which leads users through progressive steps to select the appropriate processing type. When processing based on usage records, the sources selected are now saved and retained in the project. 
• Processing for Storage Tanks: Tier II processing has been improved to better report maximum quantities in bulk storage tanks. If no throughput is added to a tank in the reporting year, a new capability has been added to search previous throughput records to calculate the amount of material remaining in the tank.

SDS Viewer

• Interface - New search criteria was introduced to the Employee Portal. Now, users are able to find documents by searching by internal ID.

Regulatory Updates for February 2017

Canada - Federal

Domestic Substances List (DSL)

The Domestic Substance List has been amended by adding the following chemicals

Non-Domestic Substances List (NDSL)

The Non Domestic Substance List has been amended by removing the following chemicals:

Your ERA-EMS and reporting functions have already been updated to reflect these changes.

Software Updates for January 2017

ERA Environmental is committed to providing your business with EH&S software that lasts a lifetime. Our team of researchers and scientists work every day to roll out upgrades, new reports, and improvements. Every month we'll publish a summary of these new features here for you. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com. 

Tanks

• Update to Reports function: The option to select a method of Kn (turnover rate) calculation at the time of report generation is now available. Before this implementation, this option was only available in the tank specific reports. Now, this option is available for every report that uses tanks (TRI, A116, A121, etc).  

Water

• Improvement made to Net DMR report: The automatic upload of the Discharge Monthly report in the EPA system has been enabled. 

Training

• Improvement to UI - Two new columns have been created in the training event setup and training events. These column allow the user to input the amount of time that is expected for a training to be completed, and the amount of time it took.

SDS Authoring

• Improvement to Report M007 - In Section 3 of the SDS, the option to display the complete classifications or the classification based on the blend evaluation has been added, next to the chemicals of that product along with its EC Inventory number.

• Improvement to UI: The option to display the complete classifications or the classification based on the blend evaluation as well as displaying the EC Inventory number has been added.
• Improvement to UI: The system is now able to automatically evaluate transportation (Section 14) as "not regulated" where required.

Tier II (Currently Being Finalized)

• XML Upload: New for RY2016, the US EPA now supports and XML upload for Tier II Submit and Eplan. ERA has completed development for the upload and is currently finalizing testing. For RY2016, the EPA supports both the XML and the old MER import formats.

• Details by Product: ERA is currently finalizing development on a "Details by Product" feature. For each chemical included in Tier II processing, users will be able to view all details (usage or inventory) for materials that contribute to the maximum on-site calculation for Tier II.
• Save Source Selection: Now available, when processing a Tier II Project based on usage, all sources selected for the project will be saved and stored. This is especially useful if a user need to reprocess for any reason.
• Export to Excel in Tier II Product details: A new export option is now available in Tier II Product Details.
• New, Streamlined User Interface: ERA is currently finalizing development for a new and streamlined "wizard" for processing your Tier II. All selections are still available, but the wizard helps to simplify your selections is easier to follow and understand the options available.
• Details by Product: Similar to the TRI report, the Detail By Product feature is now available for all chemicals in the the TIER II report. This function will allow users to troubleshoot and review the data easily, by enabling the user to see the full history of which products and processes have been contributing to each reportable chemical.
• Sorting Last Created Tier II Projects: The system now has the capability to sort previously created Tier II projects in order from newest to oldest project. This feature allows the user to search and select the previous year's submitted report more easily, in order to carry over the previous required data such as health and safety hazard of the chemicals.

Other

• Improvement to Universal Imports UI: Functionality added to batch assign ignore option in the Universal imports errors list, resolving the need to carry this out individually. 

   

This list summarizes the key software updates from January 2016. All details of every update may not be listed. If you want to learn more about how your ERA-EMS modules have been improved, please contact your ERA support expert or email us at info@era-ehs.com

ERA Environmental's regulatory research team ensures that your ERA-EMS is always up to date with with regulatory and software changes. Every month we'll publish any updates here. It's part of our commitment to excellent customer service, environmental reporting expertise, and protecting your business. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com.

Regulatory Updates for January 2016

U.S. State Regulations

California - Proposition 65

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has added the below listed chemicals to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity (developmental, female, and male endpoints) for the purposes of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.

Your ERA-EMS and reporting functions have already been updated to reflect these changes.

Software Updates for December 2016

ERA Environmental is committed to providing your business with EH&S software that lasts a lifetime. Our team of researchers and scientists work every day to roll out upgrades, new reports, and improvements. Every month we'll publish a summary of these new features here for you. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com. 

KPIs / Executive Dashboard

• KPI for Compliance: Users can now attach documents to the Notifications Compliance Widget, located on the Executive Dashboard. 
• Announcements Widget: Users can now attach documents to the Announcements Widget using the Document Management Module - which will appear in the Announcements section. 

Finishing / Coating

• New Report - Air Compliance Daily Summary F188: A new report has been designed that will calculate daily and rolling emissions for OCs (Organic Compounds). 

Water

• Import Improvement: When importing water data a CAS number is no longer required. All the user needs is the parameter name (ie. Flow, Chrome, pH, etc.) and the system will match these to the discharge limits associated with the permit. This reduces the need to populate the CAS column which will help decrease the manual data preparation prior to import. 

Training

• Improvement in UI - Increase in Character Limit: A new development has been implemented to allow users to utilize a higher-than 50 character limit for training subjects. 

SDS Authoring

• Improvement in UI: The ability to run classifications per the CLP regulation has been added. 

• Improvement in UI: Users are now able to select a supplier for a blend at the moment of generation (generating the product SDS for Supplier A, then generating the same product SDS for Supplier B, and the system will consider these two documents unique)

BPM - PSM

• Datatype Improvement: The product datatype filter for "Active/Inactive" has been updated for products. 

• Speed Improvement: BPM template speed of progressing from step to step has been improved. 
• New Datatype: DocumentListSummary: This datatype will show all documents uploading to Module: Document Management. 
• New Datatype: TextboxEditor: This datatype allows users to format their answers when out a BP. 

Compliance

• Interface Improvement: We have added a new feature in compliance that allows us to mark a task as visible or invisible. This is a helpful tool to help organize all tasks in a company. Over the years some tasks no longer apply; these can be made invisible instead of deleting them. 

Incidents

• Dynamic Import Error Tracking: A new error trapping has been developed for dynamic import, allowing the user to identify the records that cause errors during an incident import.

Vendor Module

• A new implementation now permits product import using a flexible template. 

This list summarizes the key software updates from December 2016. All details of every update may not be listed. If you want to learn more about how your ERA-EMS modules have been improved, please contact your ERA support expert or email us at info@era-ehs.com

ERA Environmental's regulatory research team ensures that your ERA-EMS is always up to date with with regulatory and software changes. Every month we'll publish any updates here. It's part of our commitment to excellent customer service, environmental reporting expertise, and protecting your business. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com.

Regulatory Updates for December 2016

European Union Regulations

REACH – Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC)

Under the EU REACH regulations, substances that are one of the following can be regarded as Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC).

• Carcinogenic, Mutagenic or Toxic to Reproduction (CMRs)
• Persistent, Bio-accumulative and Toxic (PBTs)
• Very Persistent and Bio-accumulative (vPvBs)
• Seriously and /or irreversibly damaging the environment or human health

Currently, there are 169 substances on the SVHC Candidate List. The Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern was last updated on the 20^th June 2016.

The chemical below has been added to the REACH SVHC regulation in the Master Chemical List following the update.

Your ERA-EMS and reporting functions have already been updated to reflect these changes.

ERA Environmental's regulatory research team ensures that your ERA-EMS is always up to date with with regulatory changes. Every month we'll publish any updates here. It's part of our commitment to excellent customer service, environmental reporting expertise, and protecting your business. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com.

November Updates

US State Regulations

California - Proposition 65

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has added the below listed chemicals to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer for the purposes of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.

The Domestic Substance List has been amended by adding the following chemicals:

Your ERA-EMS and reporting functions have already been updated to reflect these changes.

ERA Environmental's regulatory research team ensures that your ERA-EMS is always up to date with with regulatory changes. Every month we'll publish any updates here. It's part of our commitment to excellent customer service, environmental reporting expertise, and protecting your business. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com.

October Updates

Canada - Federal

Non Domestic Substance List (NDSL)

The Non-Domestic Substance List has been amended by removing the following chemicals:

Domestic Substance List (DSL)

The Domestic Substance List has been amended by adding the following chemicals:

Your ERA-EMS and reporting functions have already been updated to reflect these changes.

ERA Environmental's regulatory research team ensures that your ERA-EMS is always up to date with with regulatory changes. Every month we'll publish any updates here. It's part of our commitment to excellent customer service, environmental reporting expertise, and protecting your business. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com.

September Updates

Canada - Federal

Non Domestic Substance List (NDSL)

The Non-Domestic Substance List has been amended by removing the following chemicals:

Domestic Substance List (DSL)

The Domestic Substance List has been amended by adding the following chemicals:

Significant New Activity (SNAc)

CAS 1357160-95-2 was added to the Significant New Activity (SNAc) regulation as per SNAC notice no. 18462 published on 20^th August 2016 in the Canada Gazette (Part I Vol. 150, No. 34).

Your ERA-EMS and reporting functions have already been updated to reflect these changes.

ERA Environmental Management Solutions is delighted to be represented at the upcoming NISTM Annual National Aboveground Storage Tank Conference and Trade Show.

The conference is set to take place over two days, September 28 and 29 2016. The venue for the conference is the Moody Gardens Hotel, located in historic Galveston, Texas. 

 

The National Institute for Storage Tank Management (NISTM) was established in 1989, and has been organising this successful conference for almost a decade. A packed schedule of industry experts and speakers will be giving presentations on all aspects of storage tank policy and developments. Galveston, at the heart of the US Oil and Gas industry, is the ideal spot for policy and industry figures to gather and exchange ideas, best practices and discuss market trends.

ERA’s project manager and business analyst, Andrei Toma, will be presenting on Thursday, 29th September at this conference. With over 15 years experience working at ERA, Andrei will be giving his unique insights into the best approaches when considering tank emissions software in the oil and gas industry; a vital consideration in today's regulated production environment.

For more information, including a full agenda and information on how to register, please visit the NISTM homepage.

ERA Environmental's regulatory research team ensures that your ERA-EMS is always up to date with with regulatory changes. Every month we'll publish any updates here. It's part of our commitment to excellent customer service, environmental reporting expertise, and protecting your business. Have any questions about these updates? Let us know at info@era-ehs.com.

August Updates

US State Regulations

California - Proposition 65

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has added the below listed chemicals to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer, with relevance to the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has also added the below listed chemical to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity, with relevance to the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.

Your ERA-EMS and reporting functions have already been updated to reflect these changes.