Three GHS Public Hearings Scheduled
OSHA will hold the first of three "informal public hearings" about its proposed changes in the Hazard Communication Standard to conform it with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals on March 2 at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., beginning at 9:30 a.m. local time. The two other hearings will start at the same times March 31 in Pittsburgh and April 13 in Los Angeles, the agency announced last week.
Notices of intent to appear at the hearings and present testimony or documents must be submitted to the agency in any of several ways, including electronically by posting it to the rulemaking docket (docket number OSHA-H022K-2006-0062) at www.regulations.gov or faxing to 202-693-1648.
The American Industrial Hygiene Association's president, Cathy L. Cole, CIH, CSP, submitted comments on behalf of AIHA on Dec. 29 that call on OSHA to include a non-mandatory appendix to the HazCom Standard that references the Threshold Limit Values and the Workplace Environmental Exposure Levels (WEELs). If only OSHA's Permissible Exposure Limits are referenced, employers will be using outdated references that do not match current scientific knowledge about acceptable exposure to harmful chemicals, she wrote.