This updated and expanded edition leads businesses that house more than 100 hazardous or toxic materials on-site through the process of creating an effective risk management plan as mandated by the Clean Air Act. Readers will find answers to key plan-creation questions, including why audits should be done, how to plan an audit, and who to include on an audit team. Risk Management Planning Handbook also discusses the year-2000-issued General Duty Clause in detail and explains EPA's interpretations of this new element of the RMP. Readers will find three new chapters and one new appendix that reflect the increased focus on Risk Management Plans (RMP) in the past four years. Other changes this book addresses include EPA's decision to adopt new consequence analysis modeling practices, revise the list of regulated substances and thresholds for accidental release prevention, and change the designation of regulated facilities from Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes to North American Industrial Classification System Codes (NAICS). This new edition also includes a section-by-section analysis of the RMP standard; multiple charts, tables, and figures; and sample RMP forms and guidance.

About 27.5 million Americans nearly 24 percent of the labor force earn less than $8.70 an hour, not enough to keep a family of four out of poverty, even working full-time year-round. Job ladders for these workers have been dismantled, limiting their ability to get ahead in today s labor market. Low-Wage America is the most extensive study to date of how the choices employers make in response to economic globalization, industry deregulation, and advances in information technology affect the lives of tens of millions of workers at the bottom of the wage distribution. Based on data from hundreds of establishments in twenty-five industries including manufacturing, telecommunications, hospitality, and health care the case studies document how firms responses to economic restructuring often results in harsh working conditions, reduced benefits, and fewer opportunities for advancement. For instance, increased pressure for profits in newly consolidated hotel chains has led to cost-cutting strategies such as requiring maids to increase the number of rooms they clean by 50 percent. Technological changes in the organization of call centers the ultimate disposable workplace have led to monitoring of operators work performance, and eroded job ladders. Other chapters show how the temporary staffing industry has provided paths to better work for some, but to dead end jobs for many others; how new technology has reorganized work in the back offices of banks, raising skill requirements for workers; and how increased competition from abroad has forced U.S. manufacturers to cut costs by reducing wages and speeding production. Although employers responses to economic pressures have had a generally negative effect on frontline workers, some employers manage to resist this trend and still compete successfully. The benefits to workers of multi-employer training consortia and the continuing relevance of unions offer important clues about what public policy can do to support the job prospects of this vast, but largely overlooked segment of the American workforce. Low-Wage America challenges us to a national self-examination about the nature of low-wage work in this country and asks whether we are willing to tolerate the profound social and economic consequences entailed by these jobs."