Page 52 - Occupational Health & Safety, May 2019

CHEMICAL SAFETY/SDS
Chemical Management: Five Ways to Meet the Challenges of IH in a Changing Industry
The most robust software solutions feature ingredient indexing to help you track chemical ingredients across products while flagging those that are subject to more stringent regulatory standards.
BY PHIL N. MOLÉ
48 Occupational Health & Safety | MAY 2019
www.ohsonline.com
Industrial hygiene, the deliberate and scientific control of occupational hazards and risks, is more important than ever. Yet for the last 20 years, the number of certified industrial hygienists (CIHs)
has been on the decline. CIH responsibilities are being subsumed by technicians and EHS generalists, farmed out to costly consultants, or even left unfulfilled.
The EHS industry is changing in response to these challenges. For one thing, professional organizations such as the American Industrial Hygiene Associa- tion (AIHA) have opened their doors and have begun targeting their message about the importance of IH to broader audiences. For another, EHS software is empowering employees at all levels to make work- places healthier, more productive environments. Best of breed cloud-based programs make it easy to follow industry best practices, capture data, facilitate the flow of information, and provide real-time visibility and reporting into occupational activities.
Employees armed with the right tools are more empowered to make their workplaces safer, which is essential as IH increasingly becomes a shared responsibility.
A great example of the ability of software to bolster IH is in the management of chemicals. Proper chemi- cal management is a critical component of a solid IH program, even if many organizations fall short. Haz- ard Communication has ranked #2 or #3 on OSHA’s annual list of most cited violations for more than a decade, which points to systemic chemical manage- ment issues that undermine the effectiveness of IH programs and place workers at risk.
Following is a look at five ways software can help improve chemical management, strengthen your IH program, and protect the safety of your workforce.
1. Chemical Inventory & Ingredients Tracking
Everything starts with knowing what chemicals you have in the workplace. It’s the key to drafting an ac- curate written HazCom plan, ensuring you have all necessary safety data sheets (SDSs) for the chemicals in your inventory, effectively managing workplace
labels, training your employees on chemical hazards, and meeting regulatory responsibilities.
However, knowing what chemical products you have isn’t enough. You also need visibility into the in- gredients of those products, along with their specific hazards and regulatory considerations. Take methy- lene chloride, for example, a common ingredient in aerosol degreasing sprays and paint-removing sol- vents. Facility managers are often unaware it is pres- ent in their facilities because the names of the prod- ucts don’t provide obvious clues. And if you don’t know you have methylene chloride, it’s unlikely that your IH program includes exposure monitoring for it, which leaves you out of compliance with OSHA’s methylene chloride standard.
A good chemical management software solution makes it easy to avoid this issue. Chemicals can be tracked by container at the company, facility, depart- ment, and even storage level. Some software even gives you visual insight into of your chemical foot- print with drag-and-drop controls that allow you to instantly identify, move, and manage your chemical inventory on an image map of your facility. And the most robust software solutions feature ingredient in- dexing to help you track chemical ingredients across products while flagging those that are subject to more stringent regulatory standards.
EHS software can help simplify your IH training management by tracking who’s been trained on what and when, while also providing engaging content in a format that’s easy for you to deploy and your people to access.
2. Right-to-Know (RTK) Access
Not only must you know what chemicals you have, but also you must make sure your workforce does, as well. That means ensuring employees have access to SDSs in their work areas during their work shifts and that all chemical containers remain properly la- beled with the original manufacturer-supplied label on shipped containers or employer-created workplace labels on secondary containers.
Chemical management software can make a big