Page 14 - Occupational Health & Safety, December 2017

HAZMAT
What the Standards Require
Both 1910.1200 and 1910.120 are critical to those working with hazardous chemicals and to their supervisors.
BY FRED ELLIOTT
Two important OSHA standards for anyone working with hazardous chemicals, such as acids and caustics, to be aware of are 29 CFR 1910.1200, the revised Hazard Com- munication Standard, and 1910.120, Hazardous waste operations and emergency response. Those training workers to handle hazardous materials also need to be familiar with them.
The revised HazCom standard has been aligned with the Globally Harmonized System of Classifica- tion and Labeling of Chemicals, or GHS. The stan- dard covers the issue of classifying potential hazards of chemicals and communicating information about their hazards and appropriate protective measures to workers. The HAZWOPER standard applies to cleanups done at hazardous waste sites and specifies that employers involved in these must develop and implement a written safety and health program that identifies, evaluates, and controls safety and health hazards and also provides for emergency response for the hazardous waste operations performed. Medical surveillance and training are required elements of the written plan.
A key section of the latter is 1910.120(c)(7), which concerns risk identification. It says employees must be informed about any risks that have been identified from specific hazardous substances, but for situations covered by the HazCom standard, training it requires does not have to be repeated.
Risks that employers should consider, 1910.120(c) (7) says, include:
■ exposures that exceed permissible exposure limits (PELs) and published exposure levels
■ IDLH concentrations
■ potential skin absorption and irritation sources ■ potential eye irritation sources
■ explosion potential
■ oxygen deficiency
The revised HCS standard spells out how to main-
tain a written HazCom program, how to properly label containers of chemicals and chemical containers that will be shipped to other sites, both preparing and dis- tributing Safety Data Sheets to employees and down- stream companies, and employee training programs.
At 1910.1200(h), the standard explains that em- ployers must inform and also train their workers on hazardous chemicals present in their work area at the time of their initial assignment and whenever a new chemical hazard the employees have not previously been trained on is introduced into their work area. Information and training may be designed to cover the hazard categories or individual chemicals. Chem- ical-specific information must be available at all times through labels and SDSs. This section of the standard also directs that employees are to be informed about any operation in their work area where hazardous chemicals are present and about the location(s) and availability of the written HazCom program, includ-
14 Occupational Health & Safety | DECEMBER 2017
www.ohsonline.com
wideweb/Shutterstock.com