From October 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017, federal Hazardous Products Act Officers from several provincial or territorial occupational health and safety branches will be conducting WHMIS 2015 inspections with select employers and suppliers in federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions workplaces to promote promote compliance with WHMIS 2015 requirements.
The Ministry of Labour will be conducting blitz’s over Southern Ontario starting October 1st, 2017, to ensure compliance of WHMIS 2015. Over the past two years of this transition, employers have been able to have a combination of WHMIS 1988 and WHMIS 2015. As we approach 2018, all employers must ensure that they are fully compliant with WHMIS 2015 ONLY (WHMIS 1988 will be void). WHMIS is regulated on both a federal and provincial level for which changes have been made to both. Do you know what these changes are?
Main changes on a federal level include:
- The name changes of “controlled products” to “Hazardous Products”
- New rules, Classifications and diagrams to identify products
- Additions to the hazardous product list
- Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are now Standard Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and have a 16-section format that is mandatory
- Instead of updating every three (3) years, employers are required to update on a regular basis or as soon as new information becomes available to them
Main changes on the provincial level include:
- Changes to the Ontario health and safety associations regulation to identify hazardous products and make the information known and accessible to employees
- Protection of confidential information from labels and safety data sheets
- Regulations around education and training
The following show an example of label changes that will need to be made to all products in your workplace accompanied by an SDS that educates users on not only what the product is and where it comes from, but also health hazards, first aid measures, handling and storage, personal protection and exposure risks.
- What is the ‘Working for Workers Act’? - December 16, 2021
- COVID-19 testing enhancements for the upcoming winter - November 23, 2021
- New Ontario reopening guidelines - October 26, 2021