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OSHA to Provide Relief from GHS Compliance Deadline

Reportedly in response to an Adhesive and Sealant Council’s (ASC) petition, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Association (OSHA) has agreed to provide adhesive and sealant manufacturers, as well as other formulated product manufacturers, enforcement relief from the June 1, 2015, compliance deadline for implementation of the Global Harmonization Standard (GHS). The petition was reportedly coordinated with eight other trade associations representing various segments of the chemical formulating community.

The administrative relief will reportedly come in the form of a compliance directive and enforcement policy that will allow regulated formulators that can demonstrate due diligence and a good faith effort to obtain information for compliance with the June 2015 deadline to avoid being subject to violation penalties. Formulators that do not expect be in full compliance under next year’s continuing deadline should take steps to document their efforts to obtain the information from suppliers they need to create new safety data sheets (SDSs) and the revised GHS labels, as well as record any attempts made to find the information on their own.

“OSHA’s agreement to use some common sense in their enforcement policy will definitely offer relief to our members who are struggling to gather a lot of information from many different sources and then organize it into the new SDS format and develop GHS labels,” said Mark Collatz, ASC’s director of Regulatory Affairs. “Eventually, as a result of these meetings over the next few months, we expect that the agency will issue a formal policy compliance directive that will provide clarity and guidance to both those doing the enforcing and those trying to comply.”

For more information, visit www.ascouncil.org.