The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is scheduled to publish a notice of proposed rule update to its Hazard Communication (“Haz Com”) Standard on February 16th, 2021. This proposed change will align its rules with those in the seventh version of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).

OSHA’s Haz Com was initially established in 1983, and it provides a systematized approach to communicating workplace hazards associated with exposure to hazardous chemicals. The Haz Com Standard is currently linked to the third version of GHS, which was created in 2012. In the Haz Com Standard, chemical manufacturers are required to classify the hazards of chemical which they produce or import into the US, and employers need to provide information to their employees about the hazardous chemicals to which they are exposed. This includes providing a hazard communication program, labeling and other forms of warning, safety data sheets, and training. The notice of proposed rulemaking will enhance worker protections by updating the Haz Com Standard, which should support more extensive efforts to address workplace hazards such as aggregate exposures and cumulative risk models. 

Some other key modifications included in the proposed rule include:

• New flexibility for labeling bulk shipments of hazardous chemicals, including allowing labels to be placed on the immediate container or transmitted with shipping papers, bills of loading, or by other technological or electronic means that are immediately available to workers in printed form on the receiving end of the shipment;

• New alternative labeling options where a manufacturer or importer can demonstrate that it is not feasible to use traditional pull-out labels, fold-back labels, or tags containing the full label information generally required under the Haz Com Standard, including specific alternative requirements for containers less than or equal to 100ml capacity and for containers less than or equal to 3ml capacity; and

• New requirements to update the labels on individual containers that have been released for shipment but are awaiting future distribution where the manufacturer, importer, or distributor become aware of new significant information regarding the chemical’s hazards.

OSHA will be accepting comments on the proposed rule until April 19th, 2021. Comments can be submitted at https://www.regulations.gov/.