What You Need to Know About GHS

GHS stands for Global Harmonized System of the Classification and Labeling of Chemical. Aren’t you glad they shortened it to GHS?

So, what exactly is the GHS?

Instead of every country having its own standards and regulations regarding chemicals, the Global Harmonized System of the Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) attempts to bring every country onto one common standard. The United Nations developed a set of guidelines to help ensure the safe production, transport, handling, disposal, and use of hazardous materials. The United States officially adopted the GHS in March of last year by revising the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard. If you have ever heard of acronyms like OSHA, MSDS, and HCS, the GHS will be coming up during your day sooner rather than later. Between new labels, new classifications, and new handling protocols, the HazCom 2012 revision will affect your current processes quite a bit.

As a distributor of chemicals used in facility solution applications, it is FlexPAC’s responsibility to send out safety data sheets (SDS, no longer MSDS) and labels in the GHS format for each product our customer’s purchase. The bad news for us is that our deadline for compliance on sending these documents out was June 1, 2015.

The good news for you? We can help you with your compliance!

What is a company like yours to do?

Whether this is the first time you have heard the phrase GHS mentioned or you haven’t, you probably don’t know the steps needed to make the transition. Luckily, FlexPAC has you covered. By clicking on the icon below, you can download a pdf that has the full adoption timeline along with handy steps to make the transition to GHS compliance a smooth one.

GHS Timeline

Are you still overwhelmed by this new change, or don’t have the time in your day to figure out how to get your employees trained? Contact FlexPAC today to help to keep compliant.