Tag Archives: right-to-know

General Safety Issues

UPDATE TO OSHA’S HAZARD COMMUNICATION STANDARD

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and Assistant Secretary of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health, Dr. David Michael, held a press conference, March 20th, to announce a rule updating OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard.   The revised standard will align with the United Nation’s Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals to better protect workers from hazardous chemicals, as well as help American businesses compete in a global economy.  Secretary Solis stated that “exposure to hazardous chemicals is one of the most serious dangers facing American workers today.”  This revision of OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard will improve the quality, consistency and clarity of the information that workers receive, making it safer for workers to do their jobs and easier for employees to stay competitive in the global marketplace. 

The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of chemicals (GHS) provides a single set of harmonized criteria for classifying chemicals according to their health and physical hazards and specifies hazard communication elements for labeling and safety data sheets.  These criteria and elements will help chemical manufacturers to determine if a chemical product produced and/or supplied is hazardous, and explains how to prepare an appropriate label and/or safety data sheet.  This harmonized standard will ensure that workers will have information that is easier to find and understand through the use of standardized formats and label elements: signal words, pictograms, hazard statements, and precautionary statements.  As one participant expressed during OSHA’s rulemaking process, this update will give workers the right to understand, as well as the right to know.  It will reduce confusion in the workplace, facilitating safety training and improving understanding of hazards, especially for low-wage and limited-literacy workers.  The Hazard Communication Standard, first issued in 1983, was designed to ensure that employers provide information about health hazards and physical hazards, giving workers the right to know the hazards and identities of the chemicals they are exposed to in the workplace. 

Employers must train workers on the new label elements and SDS format by December 1, 2013.  Chemical employers must comply with all modified provisions of the final rule by June 1, 2015; however, distribute under the old system until December 1, 2015.  By June 1, 2016, employers must update alternative programs as necessary, and provide additional worker training for new identified physical and health hazards. 

The GHS is not a regulation or a standard, but a set of recommendations that a competent authority such as OSHA can adopt.  The GHS is being implemented around the world in countries such as Australia, the EU, and China.  This document provides countries with the regulatory building blocks to develop or modify existing national programs that address classification of hazards and transmittal of information about those hazards and associated protective measures.  This helps to ensure the safe use of chemicals as they move through the product life cycle and around the world.  Benefits to workers and members of the public include consistent, simplified communications on chemical hazards, safe handling practices, greater awareness of hazards and overall safer use of chemicals.  Benefits to employers include safer work environments, improved relations with workers, increased efficiency, reduced costs of compliance, and expanded use of training programs on health and safety. 

For more information about the benefits of harmonization, visit OSHA’s Guide to the GHS.

Source: OSHA

General Safety Issues, Health Issues, Respiratory Safety

NUMBER 3 ON OSHA’S TOP TEN VIOLATIONS LIST FOR 2010

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OSHA estimates that there are more than 650,000 hazardous chemical products in use in the United States.  This means that approximately 3 million American workplaces and over 30 million workers could be potentially exposed to some sort of chemical product.  OSHA’s #29CFR 1910.1200, Hazard Communication Standard, General Industry, was listed as Number 3 on their Top Ten Violations List for 2010.  

This occupational safety and health standard is for the purpose of evaluating potential hazards of chemicals, and communicating information concerning hazards and appropriate protective measures to employees.  There should be a written hazard communication program for the workplace, which includes lists of hazardous chemicals present, labeling of containers of chemicals in the workplace, as well as of containers of chemicals being shipped to other workplaces, and preparation and distribution of material safety data sheets to employees and downstream employers.  It also includes development and implementation of employee training programs regarding hazards of chemicals and protective measures. 

The HCS is a generic standard covering all hazardous chemicals as well as all workplaces where they are used.  By providing information to employers and employees, steps can be taken to ensure protection at the workplace.  Illnesses and injuries are reduced when both employers and employees modify their behavior as a result of receiving information about the hazards.  Training of workers is necessary to ensure they understand the information provided, where they can get more information, and how they can use the information to protect themselves.  Training is the means an employer can use to address risks related to the situation involved. 

Material Safety Data Sheets are reference documents.  They are a one-stop shopping source for everything you might need or want to know about a chemical.  They must be useful to the safety and health professionals who decide what controls to use, first aid or medical treatment to provide, and the precautionary measures to follow.  The information on MSDSs is usually technical, since it is generally written for health professionals.  MSDSs must provide the specific chemical identity of the material, physical and chemical characteristics, and the physical hazards. Other information contained in the MSDSs  are health hazards, including signs and symptoms of exposure, and medical conditions generally recognized as being aggravated by exposure to the chemical.  Also to be included in the Material Safety Data Sheets are a list of the primary means of exposure: inhalation, ingestion, or absorption and whether the chemical is a known carcinogen.  Other useful information should be listed, such as generally applicable precautions for safe handling and use of the chemical, emergency and first aid procedures, date of preparation or latest revision, and the name, address, and phone number of a person who can provide additional information and appropriate emergency procedures if needed. 

The most important way that this standard works today to reduce chemical source illnesses and injuries is to ensure that workers and those who provide protections for workers – physicians, nurses, industrial hygienists, safety engineers, and other professionals – have the information they need about the chemical to devise protections.  Then they must choose the appropriate engineering controls, personal protective equipment and controls such as substitution, by knowing what chemicals are present, and what their physical and chemical effects are.  Under the requirements of the Hazard Communications Standard, employees have a right-to-know the identities of the chemicals they are exposed to and what hazards are present. 

Source: OSHA