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(Editor’s Note: 3E is expanding news coverage to provide customers with insights into topics that enable a safer, more sustainable world by protecting people, safeguarding products, and helping businesses grow. Breaking News articles keep you up-to-date with news as it's happening).
With no fanfare, the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ Office of Budget and Management (OMB) on 8 April 2024 marked its review of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Update to the Hazard Communication Standard as “completed.”
As noted by OMB, “OSHA and other U.S. agencies have been involved in a long-term project to negotiate a globally harmonized approach to classifying chemical hazards and providing labels and safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals. The result is the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).”
“This long-awaited update brings the U.S. much closer to aligning with most other countries that have adopted the GHS and should further align us with Canada, which passed this update just over a year ago,” said Terry Wells, Senior Manager, Regulatory Research, North America, 3E. “We hope to see the details included in the final rule in about 30 days.”
The GHS initially was adopted by the United Nations with the goal of as many countries as possible adopting it by 2008. OSHA incorporated the GHS into the existing Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) in March 2012 to specify requirements for hazard classification and to standardize label components and information on safety data sheets.
However, as pointed out in the OMB filing, “GHS is a living document and has been updated several times since OSHA’s rulemaking. While OSHA's HCS 2012 was based on the third edition of the GHS, OSHA’s current rulemaking is to harmonize the HCS to the seventh edition of the GHS, improve harmonization with international trading partners such as Canada, and to codify a number of enforcement policies that have been issued since the 2012 standard.”
For more information about the content of the proposed HazCom standard that was reviewed by OMB, please see our articles, “DEEP DIVE: Industry Groups Want To Know: Where Is the HazCom Update and What’s In It?” and “DEEP DIVE: January 2024 Likely Publication Date for U.S. OSHA's Revised HazCom Standard,” and stay updated on developments as they unfold over the next few weeks.
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About the author: Sandy Smith, Senior Reporter, 3E, is an award-winning newspaper reporter and business-to-business journalist who has spent 20+ years researching and writing about EHS, regulatory compliance, and risk management and networking with EHS professionals. She is passionate about helping to build and maintain safe workplaces and promote workplace cultures that support EHS. She has presented at major conferences and has been interviewed about workplace safety and risk by The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and USA Today.
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