Hazardous Materials and Worker Right-to-Know

The basic goal of the standard is to ensure that employers and employees know about chemical hazards in their workplaces and protective measures to be taken to prevent harmful exposures. This knowledge, in turn, should help to reduce the incidence of chemical source illnesses and injuries. 

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What You Don t Know Learning About Hazardous Materials Employee s right to know about precautions to take around corrosives, solvents, and other hazardous materials. Stresses joint efforts by company, supervisors, and workers. 

In 1984, a deadly cloud of methyl isocyanate killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India. Shortly thereafter, there was a serious chemical release at a sister plant in West Virginia. These incidents underscored demands by industrial workers and communities in several states for information on hazardous materials. Public interest and environmental organizations around the United States accelerated demands for information on toxic chemicals being released to the environment. Against this backdrop, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) was enacted in 1986. 

Adhesives, as with other chemicals, must meet the standards of personal safety estabUshed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The need to protect employees from the hazards of such chemicals led OSHA to issue the first Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) in 1983. The central idea of the HCS is the belief that workers who may be exposed to hazardous chemicals have a right to know about the hazards and how to work safely with the materials. As a result, the standard requires that chemical manufacturers and importers evaluate all chemicals for hazards, and that the information concerning those hazards be communicated downstream from tbe manufacturer to tbe employer and then to the employee. 

The Hazard Communication Standard, also known as the workers right-to-know rule, became effective in November, 1985. The rule requires manufacturers, chemical importers and all employers in the manufacturing sector (Standard Industrial Classification or SIC codes 20 through 39) to assess the hazards of chemical in their workplaces and to provide information to employees concerning their exposure to hazardous substances. This means of hazard communication includes labels, placards, material safety data sheets (MSDSs), training, and access to written medical and other records. In addition, distributors of hazardous chemicals are required to ensure that containers they distribute are properly labeled and that... 

A growing number of communities are enacting right to know laws. These laws require that public officials, health workers, plant workers, and in some cases the general public, be kept informed of hazardous materials produced, used, or stored within the community. In addition, state and federal laws often give local citizens an effective voice in how those laws will be applied within their community. 

The HCS, also known as the Employee Right-to-Know Law, is basically concerned with the exposure of workers to hazardous chemicals in the workplace. Under this standard, since 1986, all manufacturers, importers, and distributors of hazardous chemicals have had to label the containers they ship, listing the ingredients and hazards of the material in the containers, and provide Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) to all downstream users, handlers, and storers of these chemicals. 

Thirdly, in the nineteen eighties, as a result of the Right to Know movement for greater public awareness of the toxic and hazardous properties of materials to which workers might be exposed, OSHA s Hazard Communication Standard was promulgated as 29 CFR 1910.1200. 

OSHA issued its HAZCOM standard to address the assessment and communication of chemical hazards in the workplace. This standard has often been referred to as the worker s right to know standard. This standard is intended to help protect employee safety and health in work sites where chemicals are used or present. There is no list of hazardous chemicals. Instead, OSHA has defined two categories of hazardous materials health hazards and physical hazards. If a material meets one of OSHA s definitions, it is considered a hazardous chemical. Every company which uses hazardous chemicals, must have a written hazard communication program. This program must be available to employees, and be provided to OSHA upon request. The most important element of the entire right-to-know program is employee training and education. 

OSHA requires employers to keep records of workers exposures to asbestos, ionizing radiation, noise and hazardous chemicals. Under right-to-know regulations employers must maintain information about the hazards of materials and substances. Workers with particular exposures (such as asbestos workers) must undergo periodic medical examinations. Employers must have records of safety training completed by employees. 

The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHAct) of 1970 requires most employers to provide employees with access to a material safety data sheet (MSDS) for any hazardous chemical. This right-to-know law for workers aims to ensme that people potentially exposed to such chemicals have access to information about the potential health effects of exposme and know how to avoid than. 

An important part of hazard communication is labeling. Workers have a right to know what materials they are working with and the hazards those materials may expose them to. XYZ Industries uses the NFPA 704-B labeling system. The NFPA diamond is readily recognizable, is easy to read and understand, alerts employees to the known hazards in a particular location, and is the preferred hazard symbol of our emergency responders. 

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