Companies that work in the sealant and adhesive business have been granted more time to comply with the Global Harmony Standard, thanks to a new move from the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA).
According to a press release from the Adhesive and Sealant Council (ASC), manufacturers that have not yet met the criteria for GHS labels will not face penalties if they don’t meet the June 2015 deadline, as long as they “demonstrate due diligence and a good faith effort to obtain information for compliance.”
The move comes in response to a coordinated petition earlier this year from the ACS and eight other trade associations, who argued that the current deadline conflicted with others that member companies also have to respond to.
Although this doesn’t excuse the need for GHS standard labels completely, it could be the signal of future efforts from the government to make operations easier on formulated product manufacturers. In the release, Mark Collatz of the ASC said that this is a strong first step for the lobbying professionals.
“OSHA’s agreement to use some common sense in their enforcement policy will definitely offer relief to our members who are struggling to gather a lot of information from many different sources and then organize it into the new SDS format and develop GHS labels,” he said. He added that that he hopes formal guidance will come later from OSHA.
Since sincere effort to meet the compliance program is important, companies that qualify for the exemption should still consider new industrial labeling systems. Purchasing and employing this technology puts your business in a better place to participate and eventually meeting the standards, if you don’t already.
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