OSHA and Hazard Communication
When hazardous chemicals exist in your facility, you’re required by OSHA to have a hazard communication program that identifies the location of your safety data sheets (SDS). (These were formerly material safety data sheets or MSDS).
Identifying SDS Stations
The Clarion Safety signs in this category function to accomplish this task and they do so in an effective, globalized manner. We’ve taken the “read manual” symbol that we developed (and which, through the U.S. ANSI TAG, we released for inclusion into the ISO safety sign standards) and we tailored it to indicate a new message – the locations of a facility’s SDS stations. The ISO-formatted white-graphic-on-a-green-square is used for symbols that indicate safety equipment location. Combining this format with the new Clarion Safety symbol gives you the ability to communicate the intended message in an internationally acceptable manner: “Here is where you’ll find the location of safety data sheets.”
OSHA Regulations
The OSHA regulation for SDS signs reads as follows:
1910.1200(g)(8) The employer shall maintain in the workplace copies of the required material safety data sheets for each hazardous chemical, and shall ensure that they are readily accessible during each work shift to employees when they are in their work area(s). (Electronic access, microfiche, and other alternatives to maintaining paper copies of the material safety data sheets are permitted as long as no barriers to immediate employee access in each workplace are created by such options.)
