a fatality and/or three or more people hospitalized from a single incident had to be reported, and that was it. “Now they’ve added a single person being admitted to the hospital, a minor amputation, or loss of a single eye,” he said. At last fall’s SGIA Expo, Hartwig conducted an extensive OSHA workshop that walked print facility owners and managers through the salient regulations—specifically the GHS-related changes—as well as offered a heads-up about a revised set of reporting requirements for workplace injuries that OSHA One of the signs that caused a furor—and a Supreme Court ruling on temporary signage— in Reed v. Town of Gilbert. has proposed, but has not officially mandated…yet. Currently, injury and illness information records (Form 300) are required to be kept for five years, although OSHA never felt compelled to go back that far—or very far at all—and cite employers who had inaccurate or incomplete records. Now, OSHA is considering tweaking its regulatory language so that they can. “It’s really a ‘gotcha’ kind of thing that they’re trying,” said Hartwig. So in the workshop he emphasized the importance of keeping complete and accurate injury and illness records for the full five years, in the event OSHA does pull the trigger on its revision. Rules and regulations are always in flux and while they may not change in dramatic ways, being aware of even small changes from year to year can go a long way to keeping from falling afoul of OSHA and other agencies. It also helps protect your employees. Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12148556 The new GHS labeling requirements include standard symbols for different types of hazardous chemicals, identifying those that are (top, l to r): hazardous (in general), explosive, flammable, oxidizing; and (bottom, l to r) corrosive, hazardous to health, toxic, and environmentally hazardous. OSHA’s HCS Changes Continue There is also a deadline looming in 2016 that print service providers should be aware of, which is related to the ongoing changes to Hazard Communication Standards (HCS) mandated by OSHA. There are three basic components to the new requirements, which apply to anything that can be considered a hazardous chemical: §§new Safety Data Sheets (SDS) that replace the older Material Safety Data Sheets §§new Globally Harmonized System (GHS) labels on these products §§workplace labeling and employee training programs The first two predominantly apply to manufacturers and distributors of materials like ink, toner, solvents, adhesives—“anything that’s a hazardous chemical,” said Hartwig—while the third is the responsibility of print service providers. December 1, 2015 was the deadline for transitioning to new GHS labels and new SDSes, and after that date manufacturers and distributors must be using the new system and technically cannot ship materials using labels and SDSes created under the old system. The next important deadline is June 1, 2016, which is the deadline for employers— that is, printers—to have completed new workplace labeling and training programs. The GHS was launched as long ago as 1992—and has been a long time coming—and the new standards were designed, as part of a worldwide United Nations initiative to make hazardous chemical labeling and reporting consistent. “Historically, Materials Safety Data Sheets were horrific,” said Hartwig. “Every sheet was in a different format, some were complete, some were not. There was no set standard.” The same was true of product labels. So countries across the globe pulled together to create a global standard, and tasked the regulatory bodies in each country—in the US that’s OSHA and the EPA—to adopt the Globally Harmonized System and oversee its implementation. That was easier said than done. “Everyone agrees it’s a good thing, but during the transition period it’s really causing a lot of problems.” In essence, manufactures and distributors of these materials need to get the information from their raw materials suppliers in order to produce the new SDSes and GHS labels—which for many has proven to be a challenge. Not all of this is of vital importance to print service providers (if you want more information about all the aspects of GHS, see here), but they have some degree of leeway on making sure their product inventories conform to the new SDS and labeling standards, since they are often at the mercy of their suppliers. However, said Hartwig, “there’s no excuse for not having a training program in place.” Hartwig also offered a reminder that in 2015 OSHA changed its reporting requirements for on-thejob injuries, although it has not been communicated particularly well. “If you have a fatality, a single employee has been hospitalized— actually admitted into the hospital and not just observed—or experienced an amputation or loss of an eye, you automatically have to report that to OSHA,” he said. What used to be the rule was that Wide-Format & PrintingNews.com Signage | April 2016 23
WideFormat_And_Signage_April_2016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above