One of a safety coordinator’s key duties—and biggest challenges—is to ensure that your company complies with all requirements under WHMIS laws. A critical aspect of this responsibility is ensuring that each hazardous chemical and substance (called “controlled products” in WHMIS lingo) in your workplace has a proper label describing the product’s dangerous properties and the precautions to take when using it.
We’ll explain the WHMIS requirements for labels on containers of controlled products and how to comply with those requirements to protect your workers from chemical injuries and your company from liability for WHMIS violations. There’s also a chart showing the sections in each jurisdiction’s OHS laws that deal with labels.
ONLINE RESOURCE: Click here for links to online government WHMIS compliance guides.
Defining Our Terms
Different labels must be attached to controlled products as they move through the stream of commerce. For example, suppliers and importers of controlled products are required to use certain kinds of WHMIS labels and employers that use these products are required to use what’s called a “workplace label.” The latter are the focus of this article. (The article doesn’t cover controlled products in labs, which are subject to special labelling requirements.) And when we use the term “label,” we mean any mark, sign, stamp, sticker, seal, tag, ticket or wrapper.
Every jurisdiction’s OHS law addresses WHMIS requirements in either its general OHS regulations—Fed, AB, BC, MB and SK—or in a separate WHMIS regulation—NB, NL, NT, NS, NU, ON, PEI, QC and YT. In either event, WHMIS labelling requirements typically cover the following:
We’ll discuss each of these areas in detail below. And at the end of the article, there’s a chart showing the sections in each jurisdiction’s WHMIS laws that deal with labels.
The WHMIS workplace label requirements are similar across Canada:
1. When Workplace Label Is Needed
WHMIS requires workplace labels in four basic situations:
Bulk delivery of controlled product without supplier label. Suppliers don’t have to label controlled products transported as bulk shipments under certain circumstances. If an employer receives such a bulk shipment, it must affix a workplace label to the controlled product’s container or to the controlled product in the workplace.
Production of controlled product. When an employer produces a controlled product in the workplace, it must apply a workplace label to the controlled product or its container. However, this requirement doesn’t apply to “fugitive emissions”—that is, gases, liquids, solids, vapours, fumes, mist, fog or dust containing a controlled product that escape from processing equipment, emission control equipment or a product. Nor does it apply to a controlled product in a container that’s being offered for sale and is (or is about to be) appropriately labelled for that purpose.
Transfer of controlled product to a smaller container. One of the most common situations in which a workplace label is required is when a controlled product is transferred, or “decanted,” from the supplier’s container into another, often smaller container. In that case, the employer must affix a workplace label to the second container. However, a workplace label isn’t required if all of the decanted product is required for immediate use or if:
Damage to supplier label. Employers must replace the supplier’s label with either a new supplier label, if one is available, or a workplace label if the supplier label becomes illegible, gets damaged, is removed or falls off
2. Exceptions to Workplace Label Requirements
There are also two broad exceptions when a workplace label isn’t required:
Controlled products in pipes or vessels. A controlled product doesn’t need a workplace label if it’s contained or transferred at a workplace in:
But this exception doesn’t relieve the employer of the need to identify the controlled product in some way and warn workers about its hazards. Employers must ensure the safe use, storage and handling of a controlled product contained or transferred in the above means through worker training and the use of colour coding, placards or some other means of effective identification.
Controlled products not in containers or intended for export. If a controlled product isn’t in a container or in a form intended for export, the employer may satisfy the label requirements by instead posting a placard where that product is being stored. That placard must:
3. What Information Label Must Include
Unlike supplier labels, which are very detailed, workplace labels are designed to provide only enough information to alert workers to hazards and notify them of the appropriate precautions to take. The WHMIS laws don’t specify the appearance, wording and layout of workplace labels. Instead, the definitions of “workplace” or “work site” labels spell out the three types of information such labels must contain:
Product identifier. Workers must know the identity of a product to be able to protect themselves from the hazards it poses. So a workplace label must clearly identify the product by brand name, supplier’s code name or number, chemical name, common or generic name or trade name.
Safe use and handling information. A workplace label must also clearly show what precautions workers must take to minimize the risk of injury or illness from the controlled product. For example, using words or pictures, it could warn workers to wear rubber gloves or eye protection when using the product.
MSDS information. Lastly, the workplace label must tell workers whether an MSDS is available for the product. If an MSDS isn’t available (say, because the controlled product is a consumer product that doesn’t require an MSDS), the workplace label doesn’t need a statement regarding an MSDS.
4. When to Update Labels
Employers should update workplace labels when new information about the controlled product becomes available. For example, if an employer gets an updated MSDS from the product’s supplier that impacts the information on the workplace label, it must replace the label with an updated one. In addition, as with supplier labels, employers should replace a workplace label if it becomes illegible, gets damaged, is removed or falls off.
5. Training Workers on Labels
Every jurisdiction requires employers to train workers on WHMIS. That training should address workplace labels. For example, Alberta requires employers to train workers on the information required in supplier and work site labels and the purpose and significance of such information [OHS Code 2009, Sec. 397(1)(a)]. [For more information on WHMIS training requirements, click here.]
Conclusion
You hope that workers remember everything that they learn during WHMIS training. If not, MSDSs will help remind workers of the hazards posed by certain controlled products and how to protect themselves from those hazards. But workers must actively seek out MSDSs to get that information. So if they forget their training and don’t look up the MSDS for a particular controlled product, how will they be protected? That’s where workplace labels come in. These labels are stuck to controlled products where workers are almost forced to see them and the information they contain. Thus, labels are in many ways a final, in-your-face way to protect workers from the hazards of controlled products.
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