Hazcom Training Deadline

An important date for employers is coming due on December 1, 2013. By that date employers must have trained their workers about two significant changes contained in recent revisions to OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard. Those changes require manufacturers to begin presenting new information on product labels and to follow a new, standardized format for Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), formerly known as Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs).  Since manufacturers have already started to ship some Safety Data Sheets and products containing the revised labels, OSHA requires employers to go ahead and train their workers about those changes by December 1, 2013.

The training should cover the following areas at a minimum:

•  Changes coming to product labels

– Product identifiers

– Signal words

– Pictograms

– Hazard statements

– Precautionary statements

– Name, address and phone number of the chemical manufacturer, distributor, or importer

•  The new, 16-section, standardized format of Safety Data Sheets.