OSHA revised its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to reflect the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals, the international standard for hazard communications. That means companies in the United States have to modify virtually every chemical label, Safety Data Sheet, and written hazard communication plan to meet this new standard. In turn, employers now have to ensure that employees understand the new classification system, labels, warning statements, precautions, pictograms, and safety data sheets for chemicals at their specific worksites.
Healthcare Compliance Pros has leveraged its experience in delivering and customizing online training for the new standards to create materials that will help your workforce understand the new labeling elements and safety data sheet formats. Workers will have access to a program that covers all of OSHA's GHS training requirements in an easy-to-understand format. Our online OSHA training has included the new GHS policies since April 9, 2013.
The training is necessitated by the extensive mandated changes. The new hazard classifications identify several new hazards and include drastically different definitions for many of the hazard classes in the original standard. Chemical manufacturers and importers are now required to provide a label that includes a harmonized signal word, pictogram, and hazard statement for each hazard class and category. Standardized precautionary statements must also be provided on each label. Also, Safety Data Sheets, formerly called Material Safety Data Sheets, will now be in a 16-section format, with precise requirements for the type of information that must be in each section.
Since many American and foreign chemical manufacturers have already begun to produce GHS-compliant labels and Safety Data Sheets, American workplaces will soon begin to receive those labels and datasheets. It's vital for work safety and business productivity that employees understand the new labels and SDSs when they begin to encounter them during the course of work.