OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard and Material Safety Data Sheets

¶ … Hazard Communication Standard. There are five references used for this paper.

Safety in the workplace is a major concern for both employees and employers. It is important to look at the Hazard Communication Standard, 29 Code of Federal Regulations 1910.1200 and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to understand the employer's role and responsibility.

History and Development

The Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) was developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1974, and is "known as the 'employee right-to-know law' (Geigler, 1989)."

The development process was lengthy, lasting until November 25, 1983 when the Federal Register published the original final rule. The original rule covered the "manufacturing segment of industry, and its basic intent was to inform workers about hazardous materials they come in contact with (Geigler, 1989)."

The effective date for industries to implement the HCS was May 25, 1986. The rule was changed on August 24, 1987, covering all "industries where employees are exposed to hazardous chemicals, and this rule has been enforced since January 24, 1989 (131.158.51.236/osha_cd/osha/FEDREG~1/FE5D1C~6.HTM)."

OSHA estimates that "there are over 32 million workers exposed to hazardous chemicals in over 3.5 million workplaces, and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) states there are as many as 650,000 hazardous chemical products in these workplaces (131.158.51.236/osha_cd/osha/FEDREG~1/FE5D1C~6.HTM)."

Hazard Communication

The goal of Hazard Communication "is to ensure that the hazards of all chemicals are evaluated, and that the information concerning their hazards is transmitted to affected employers and employees (Daugherty, 1995)."

Employees must not only be informed, but also understand the dangers of chemical hazards.

According to the Hazard Communication Standard of OSHA, "all employers who use produce, or distribute chemicals must inform employees about the health hazards of the chemicals they work with (Brady, 1990)."

Employer Responsibility

An employer is required by OSHA to draft a written compliance program. The "written program does not have to be lengthy or complicated and some employers may be able to rely on existing hazard communication programs to comply (Geigler, 1989)."

Employees, their representatives and NIOSH must have access to the written program. OSHA reports that the main cause of non-compliance with the HCS is the absence of a written manual.

Chemical Manufacturers

It is the responsibility of chemical manufacturers and importers to "identify and evaluate the hazards of the chemicals they provide (Brady, 1990)."

They must provide users with an MSDS which contains information for each chemical.

Employees are required to be trained "to identify the danger areas in their workplace and to take steps to protect themselves (Brady, 1990)."

Inspectors determining whether a company is compliant will look at training records and also interview employees, analyzing whether the employee can read an MSDS, if they understand HCS regulations, and know what precautions are necessary in the workplace. Companies can be issued citations by inspectors, if it is found the employees are not properly trained.

Citations

The majority of citations written by OSHA are for HCS violation.

These citations are issued for "such basics as lack of a written hazard-communication program, lack of training of employees in the hazards of the chemicals with which they work, unavailability of MSDS at the work site, and no labels on containers of chemicals. The citations are split almost evenly between general industry and construction sites (Tompkins, 1993)."

Conclusion

The Hazardous Communication Standard was implemented in 1983 as a means to inform and protect employees working with hazardous chemicals.

It is important for employers to comply with the regulations of the HCS and provide employees with easy access to MSDS to ensure safety in the workplace.