Hazard Communication Standard: New Chemical Provisions

In June 2012, the United States adopted the same standards as 25 other industrial countries for information regarding the identification of hazardous materials in the workplace. It is a logical and comprehensive approach to:

• Defining health, physical and environmental hazards of chemicals;
• Creating classification processes that use available data on chemicals for comparison with the defined hazard criteria; and
• Communicating hazard information, as well as protective measures, on labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDS).

OSHA is the authority agency for implementation, and requires changes that are incorporated into the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) and adopted new classification of hazardous materials to fall in line with a universal identification system. These changes are now under way as the HCS aligns with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of classification and labeling of chemicals utilized around the world. These revisions are significant and affect all employers who manufacture, distribute, store and use chemicals.