Compliance with OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard (Haz Com) has begun for the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. It was the first program to be initiated because it affects virtually all employees, even those in office environments that seemingly offer no exposure to hazards. The purpose of this standard is to protect employees from hazardous chemicals in the workplace. This is accomplished by training, developing a Written Haz Com Plan, inventorying hazardous chemicals, providing material safety data sheets (MSDS) for these chemicals, and ensuring that chemical containers are properly labeled. The following outline will assist you in compliance with this standard.

Requirements and What to Do:

Written Hazard Communication Program
Obtain generic written program from college safety office or Office of Environmental Health and Safety (OEHS) http://www.ehs.ohio-state.edu/index.asp?PAGE=ohse.RDF, follow instructions, add sections, fill in blanks, modify if necessary.

Locate your written HCP in a place accessible to employees. Review and modify as needed on annual basis.

Chemical Inventory

Inventory hazardous chemicals by product name, manufacturer, and address (use form in generic program - Appendix C).

Maintain MSDS File

Obtain material safety data sheets for chemicals on inventory, OSU Office of Environmental Health and Safety MSDS Search.

Locate MSDS file in a place accessible to employees.

Train Employees

Identify and list employees who need training.

Send employees to OEHS for generic training, schedule a training session with the college safety office, or utilize OEHS's web based training.

Train employees on specific chemical hazards in their area of employment. Document both generic and specific training.

One of the requirements of this regulation is generic and specific training for employees. This training is required of all employees including student employees unless they can produce documentation showing prior compliance. Generic training is available at the Office of Environmental Health and Safety's (OEHS) 1314 Kinnear Road facility the second Thursday of each month at 8:30 A.M. Call 292-1284 to schedule or for more information on this and other training programs and services offered by OEHS. Generic training can also be provided for groups of five or more at Columbus Campus and Extension locations by contacting the Health and Safety Specialist listed at the beginning of this announcement. A third option would be to access OEHS's website at http://www.ehs.ohio-state. edu/ with Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer (version 3.0 or higher). Click on the link: "Safety Sam's, Haz Com On-Line" then follow the directions. Successful completion of this on-line training records your name in a data base and verifies that you have received the training. It is also best to notify the personnel records keeper for your department so that they may record this information as well. Training must be documented in order to legally be considered to have been done. Specific Haz Com Training on hazardous chemicals germane to a particular work area, location of departmental safety information, etc. is the responsibility of individual departments and/or supervisors. OSHA requires that all safety training be documented.