Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The earliest recorded disaster involving ammonium nitrate (AN) occurred on April 16, 1947, in Texas City, Texas. A transport vessel loaded with 2,600 tons of AN caught fire; when the fire spread to the sealed storage hold, the transport exploded, killing 581 people—including all but one member of the Texas City Fire Department. We’ve known […]
On April 17, 2013, fire broke out in a wooden warehouse at West Fertilizer Company in West, Texas. As the town’s volunteer fire department mobilized to respond, 30 tons of ammonium nitrate (AN) fertilizer in an adjacent wooden warehouse exploded. Fifteen people died, including 12 volunteer firefighters. An apartment building, many houses, and a nursing […]
In yesterday’s article, we looked at the labeling requirements for solid materials, specifically, when a solid material is an “article” that does not require labeling and when it is a potentially hazardous chemical that must be labeled. Today, we’ll look at other unusual labeling situations that may arise and how to handle them.
HazCom training must now include information about the new GHS format safety data sheet (SDS) and GHS-compliant labels.
Hazard communication often figures prominently on OSHA’s annual Top 10 Violations list. Find out why so many employers fall short of HazCom requirements.
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 […]
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’s behind new employee injuries, and is there really anything you can do to eliminate them? Today, we’ll talk about what’s behind them, and tomorrow, we talk about what you can do to eliminate them. Here are some examples that illustrate the problem of new hire accidents: A laborer on the job less than a […]