New standard announced for dangerous chemical labeling

Because there are so many different agencies and other departments from which chemical standards can originate, it can take a sophisticated and high-quality color label printer to cover all bases. Either that, or updates can be made and reapplied relatively cheaply with the in-house systems you already have.

If you manufacture chemicals that might be subject to recent updates in labeling policies, than securing a means of making durable chemical labels should be your first priority. OSHA is taking steps to synchronize its efforts with the worldwide “Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals” by bolstering its own “Hazardous Communication Standard,” with a compliance deadline of this December 1.

Chances are your chemicals do fall under the international guidelines, because, as they point out, all chemicals with the potential to be dangerous are covered by these rules, though it does say that the kinds of labels individual chemicals will require may vary.

“The term ‘chemical’ is used broadly to include substances, products, mixtures, preparations, or any other terms that may be used by existing systems,” the official text of the guidelines state. “The goal of the GHS is to identify the intrinsic hazards of chemical substances and mixtures and to convey hazard information about these hazards.”

But there’s a chance that your business has not previously considered these guidelines to the extent that they should have, in which case a professional provider of labelmaking equipment can step in to give you some well-needed warning and coverage. Guidelines like these are useless unless you take the steps to follow them yourself and make it so that you aren’t lagging behind.