Companies have different options for workplace chemical labeling

Even though the Occupational Safety & Health Administration lists several details about the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), employers and manufacturers can still be confused about exactly what labels and pictograms they need on certain products.

As this blog has mentioned multiple times, the GHS label breaks down into three categories of elements: symbols, signal words and hazard statements. These include the distinctive pictogram images that apply to specific risks and dangers associated with a product.

However, employers can fulfill safety requirements for chemical labels in multiple different ways, as Glenn Trout recently observed in a piece for Chem.Info. By choosing the correct method for your business and the printer that can handle your label demands, you can create GHS chemical labels that correspond to your chosen strategy.

Trout writes that, while companies can replicate the information on a product’s shipped label, they can also use just the product identifier and one of a list of six “key elements,” including precautionary statements and supplier information. Under the third option, companies don’t have to use the labeling system at all, instead relying on their own, provided it is compliant with previous standards.

“Hazard Communication is already the second most frequently cited standard by OSHA, and with an increased focus on GHS, its high ranking is likely to hold,” Trout writes. “Companies struggling with SDSs and/or labels may want to consider getting outside help.”

Better still, companies can get the tools to help themselves by purchasing printers compatible with GHS Label requirements, like the Primera CX1000. This printer allows for color control, giving users precision when exact tone matches count.