The U.S. Department of Labour’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Sept. 12, 2006 Federal Register seeking public comment on the implementation of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).
The GHS is a system for standardizing and harmonizing the classification and labelling of chemicals. The GHS includes a harmonized approach for classification of chemicals for their health, physical, and environmental effects, as well as for labels on containers and material safety data sheets. Adoption of the GHS would require proposed changes to OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard. It is expected that the GHS will help make international trade easier by increasing the consistency between the laws in different countries regarding the information that must be provided to employers and employees about chemicals during their production, transportation, use, and disposal.
The GHS has been adopted by the United Nations and there is an international goal for as many countries as possible to implement the GHS by 2008.
Comments must be submitted to OSHA by Nov. 13, 2006.
Read the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) published in the Federal Register
Read OSHA’s newly released Guide to GHS
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