Category: Chemicals

Today’s workplace uses thousands of chemicals, many of which are hazardous. The resources in this section will help guide you in the safe and legal identification, storage, transport, and use of these chemicals, and in making sure that your employees right to know how to be safe around such substances is provided, as required by law.

GHS Review: Part 2

In yesterday’s GHS review, we talked about compliance guidelines, how GHS has changed HazCom, and GHS-compliant labeling requirements. Today, we review issues involving the SDS and employee training. Manufacturers, importers, or distributors must provide a safety data sheet (SDS) to their customers for each hazardous chemical at the time of the first shipment of the […]

GHS Review: Are You Moving Toward Compliance?

The deadline for training employees on the SDS and GHS labels was December 1, 2013, so you should already have done that. The next deadline is June 1, 2015, when chemical manufacturers, importers, distributors must comply with all the requirements of the GHS rule (e.g., hazard classification, SDS format). Then, by December 1, 2015, all […]

What You Should Know About OSHA’s Annotated PEL Tables

Yesterday, we focused on OSHA’s safer chemicals toolkit. Today, we turn to its annotated PEL tables. OSHA recognizes that many of its permissible exposure limits (PELs) are outdated and inadequate for ensuring protection of worker health. Most of OSHA’s PELs were issued shortly after adoption of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, and […]

OSHA’s New Chemical Safety Tools: A Closer Look

Recently, OSHA announced two new tools designed to help employers protect their workers from exposure to hazardous chemicals. The first tool helps employers identify safer chemicals and the second is a web resource called the “Annotated Permissible Exposure Limits,” or annotated PEL tables, which OSHA says will enable employers to voluntarily adopt newer, more protective […]

The Flammable Liquids Standard Defined

The purpose of today’s Advisor article is to discuss the requirements of the flammable liquids standard in general industry and to better understand how to avoid serious hazards. By Ana Ellington, BLR Legal Editor Flammable liquids are present in nearly every workplace. Gasoline, diesel fuel, and many common products like solvents, thinners, cleaners, adhesives, paints, […]

Requirements for Flammable Liquid Storage Cabinets

Yesterday, we reviewed the definition of flammable liquids within the context of the OSHA standard and also talked about flammable categories and safety can requirements. Today, we focus on storage cabinet requirements. By Ana Ellington, BLR Legal Editor OSHA requires flammable cabinets to be designed and constructed to specific requirements. Metal cabinets must be constructed […]