New Webinar Covers OSHA's 2015 GHS Authoring Deadline for Chemical Manufacturers

02-Feb-2015 - USA

MSDSonline announced that it is offering a new webinar to help companies and safety professionals prepare for the June 1, 2015 OSHA/GHS deadline. The deadline is the date by which chemical manufacturers and distributors operating in the United States are required to reclassify their hazardous chemicals using new GHS criteria and to update affected safety data sheets and chemical labels.

The webinar will debut on February 3, 2015, and MSDSonline will repeat the webinar live each month until the June 2015 deadline passes. A Q&A session with MSDSonline authoring experts will conclude each presentation.

"In less than six months from today, OSHA expects chemical manufacturers, importers and distributors to have reclassified their hazardous chemicals and updated all of their safety data sheets," said Ivy Mattio, MSDSonline's Authoring Services manager. "OSHA conservatively estimates that more than 1.4 million safety data sheets for chemicals and mixtures need to be updated by the June deadline. It's a huge task, and quite frankly, many companies are behind and will likely miss the deadline."

According to Mattio, even though MSDSonline is known for its cloud-based solutions, the company prefers a hands on approach to safety data sheet authoring. Additionally, its industry-leading team of authoring specialists has been focused on helping companies prepare for the authoring deadline since well before OSHA's official announcement of its revision to the HazCom Standard back in March of 2012.

Mattio said, "We knew, given the number of safety data sheets requiring updating, that many companies were going to need a head start. We're proud to have helped many industry leaders complete their updates ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, many companies took a 'wait and see' approach, which is catching up to them and causing problems throughout the chemical supply chain."

MSDSonline's recommendation for companies that manufacture or blend hazardous chemicals in the United States is that they start the reclassification and authoring process as soon as possible. Mattio cautioned that it is easy for companies to underestimate the amount of time it will take to learn what is required to reclassify chemicals and incorporate that information into the SDSs.

The February 3 webinar will cover important points chemical manufacturers and others should consider in meeting authoring compliance obligations, including: