Everyone knows that hazardous materials and chemicals are dangerous and require a special safety program entirely separate from the safety program on the work site. Over the years, as more and more hazardous chemicals and materials are stored, used, handled and shipped, much of the safety compliance has seemed to be blurred or clouded. In some cases, there have been so many changes that some hazardous-chemical safety programs have become obsolete or flat-out inaccurate, which of course leaves workers vulnerable.

[Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]Hazardous chemicals have their own safety program separate from that of a work site program. OSHA now has created new tools to help every company, regardless of size, develop and implement an OSHA-cmpliant program.

This of course, is not to mention the small companies who have found it difficult to invest the money and resources needed to be fully compliant with OSHA standards. Well now, confusion, rapid change or too small a revenue stream can no longer be excuses for companies, as OSHA has produced two new tools to help companies implement the right safety program that will be compliant with OSHA’s hazardous-chemical standards.

The first document is called “Small Entity Compliance Guide” for small companies that handle hazardous chemicals. You can get the document in a PDF here. This guide gives detailed information about how a small company can inexpensively implement an OSHA-complaint program for workers who handle hazardous chemicals. The document goes into six steps to instituting a proper program, a sample program and provides a guide to training supervisors and workers in the program.

The second OSHA document, found here, is an over-arching guide to a HazCom program in any business. “Steps to an Effective HazCom Program” is a fact sheet that goes over OSHA’s recommendations for a properly compliant program, regardless of the size of the business or the hazardous materials being handled.

Either one of these,  or both, will serve to be valuable for every company, regardless of size, to ensure proper and efficient implementation of a hazardous-chemical safety program that can and would be compliant with OSHA standards with equivocation and without all the work of needing to keep up with all the latest information. If you need a program, or need to clean up your existing program, OSHA is now telling you how to be compliant. No more excuses, people!