Chemical Safety

Chemical Safety, HAZWOPER or Process Safety Management?

• Chemical Safety. The page you are on. Hazard communication for people who handle or work near chemicals as part of a normal job.
• HAZWOPER 40 Hour. For hazardous waste site cleanup, treatment and disposal work, and emergency response to uncontrolled releases. View the HAZWOPER 40 Hour
• Process Safety Management. For processes holding a highly hazardous chemical above the threshold quantity in 29 CFR 1910.119. View the Process Safety Management
• Hazardous Waste Program Development Training. For the person building the waste side of the programme under RCRA. View the Hazardous Waste Program Development Training

Almost everyone needs hazard communication. The other two apply to specific work and specific quantities.

What Chemical Safety Training Does OSHA Actually Require?

Hazard communication is one of the few training duties OSHA writes down in plain words, and it is worth knowing exactly what the words say before buying anything.

• When training is owed. Employers shall provide effective information and training on hazardous chemicals in the work area at the time of initial assignment, and whenever a new chemical hazard the employees have not previously been trained about is introduced, under 29 CFR 1910.1200(h)(1).
• What else the employer owes. Training is one piece. The standard also requires a written hazard communication program, a list of the hazardous chemicals present, labels on containers, and safety data sheets kept readily accessible to employees during each work shift.
• No expiry date. The standard sets no expiry on training. What triggers more of it is a new hazard in the work area, not a date on a certificate.
• What a course cannot do. No off the shelf course can teach your chemical list, where your SDS binder lives, or your own spill procedure. Those are site specific and the standard expects them to be taught on site.

This course covers the general elements the standard names, which is the part that transfers between employers. The site specific half stays with the employer.