The official deadline for labeling secondary containers of chemicals in your plant with GHS-style labels is June 1, 2016. If operators at your company put chemical products in bottles or solvent cans for use, this OSHA requirement affects you.
I've made a few templates (in MS Powerpoint) that can help you make your own labels. Follow this link to download your copy: Label Templates GHS 2016.05
OSHA announced last week that most companies (with 20 or more employees) will be required to electronically submit their OSHA 300A summary report of work-related injuries & illnesses to OSHA beginning in 2017. The first report due will include your company data from 2016.
The really significant thing about this new requirement is that OSHA says they will make some of the data available to the public. OSHA feels that public disclosure will (more…)
Very few of the fire stations can help you if someone is down in a confined space. There are six fully equipped rescue stations in the DFW area that can help with confined space rescues (Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Denton, HEB and Colin County). Lt Keith Copeman, leads the special fire station #8 in North Arlington, Texas. He says his group is happy to come to a manufacturer's site to plan or practice a rescue of someone (more…)
At the recent "OSHA stand down meeting on Construction Falls" at the University of Texas - Arlington, we received a heads-up on how not to respond when OSHA asks your company to self-investigate an amputation injury.
Jack Rector, the OSHA Director in the Fort Worth office, says he's amazed how
many companies (more…)
Manufacturers of chemicals recently converted to GHS-Style Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and labels (including the new pictograms). Now companies that use chemicals have a June 1 deadline, from OSHA, to re-vamp their in-house labeling. After decades of using the color-coded HMIS labels for smaller containers that do not have the original OEM labels on them, companies must create GHS-style labels.
Key Steps:
1)Make sure you have new-style Safety Data Sheets (with 16 sections).
2)If your supplier will provide a GHS-style label, that's great. If you use an on-line service, such as "MSDSonline", you can pay an extra fee to access GHS label files. Otherwise, you will need digital files of SDS for chemicals that are relabeled in-house.
3) Create the new GHS style label file as follows: Copy & Paste the required information into the new label file (Product Identifier, Hazard Statements, Signal Word, Pictograms, Supplier Identification/phone, Precautionary Statements). 
Employers reported 10,388 severe injuries to OSHA under the new requirement in 2015. OSHA contacted 62% of the companies reporting severe incidents. They report that 62% of those contacted were required to self-investigate and share their planned remedies. The other 38% received on-site investigations by OSHA.
Click on these graphs to see the breakdown of severe incidents reported by industry: (more…)
Beginning in 2015, OSHA began requiring that companies inform them when an employee has an amputation, loss of an eye, or is admitted for in-patient hospitalization (Follow this link to CFR 1904.39 for details). At the regional OSHA update meeting for safety & industrial hygiene professionals in Dallas/Fort Worth, we were told that the agency is now expending a tremendous effort to investigate companies that experience these serious injuries.
PictogramsPosterImpactSafety Click the statement to the left to open a pdf of the poster
