Breathe in, Breathe out, Breathe in… Another deadline has passed for the roll out of the new Globally Harmonized System for our Hazardous Communications Standard. With the politics in D.C. being what they are in this election year I am going to take a stab at guessing we may not see this roll out at all in 2012!
The Office of Management and Budget has officially “extended its review” meaning they can hold this process up indefinitely! With OSHA deciding not to take action on just about any new or revised standards, it seems that POLOTICS is a driving force in moving safety ahead for the American worker. Not that I agree with “OSHA is the answer for safety”, but how many plants have to blow up with combustible dusts before something is done. Of course Congress is just as bad – they have not even discussed the Combustible Dust issue in a committee in two years!!!!! So with lives being lost and no action in 2012, I can be bold and say I do not think we will see any movement on the GHS HazCom until Dec 2012 at the earliest. By the way, have seen the “cost savings” OSHA is claiming the new GHS HazCom will save employers? They actually estimate how much LESS TIME you and I will have to spend managing Safety Data Sheets (SDS), training personnel, and labeling containers, etc. Quite interesting numbers and would love to see how they came to determine these numbers. Click Here to follow the “status” of this review on-line.