WHMIS 101

Part 1: Understanding the WHMIS Training Requirements

A controller in my accounting department refuses to be trained in
WHMIS because he claims he’s not exposed to any dangerous chemicals.
How should I deal with this situation?”

The safety coordinator who recently posed this question (which we’ve paraphrased) on a well-known Canadian OHS listserve triggered a lively—and sometimes acrimonious—discussion about the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) training requirements. The discussion centered on a very basic question: Which workers must get WHMIS training? Clearly, the obligation to provide WHMIS training applies to workers who actually work with so-called “controlled products.” But what about the other workers in the workplace?

The differences in opinion with regard to training requirements is understandable, given the vague and often confusing language in the WHMIS and OHS regulations. Of course, there’s too much at stake for safety coordinators to have to guess what their training obligations are under the law. The purpose of this two-part series is to clear up the confusion and enable safety coordinators to come to grips with their training obligations. This month we’ll break down what the law says about training requirements for “controlled products” and “hazardous substances.” There’s also a chart showing which workers must receive WHMIS and hazardous substance training under the laws of each province and territory. In part two, we’ll show you how to implement these rules and determine what, if any, WHMIS and hazardous substance training you must provide for each of your workers.

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

Just about all workplaces include at least some dangerous chemicals and substances. WHMIS, which is a staple of every jurisdiction’s OHS laws, requires employers to protect their workers against the dangers posed by these chemicals and substances. The WHMIS system is based on education and awareness. WHMIS requirements are designed to ensure that workers know which chemicals and substances in their particular workplace are dangerous, the hazards each one poses and how to protect themselves from these hazards.

One of the key steps employers must take to implement these principles is to provide WHMIS training to workers. The confusion arises with regard to the scope of the WHMIS training requirements. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that the hazards posed by dangerous chemicals and substances aren’t uniform from worker to worker. Some workers are at more risk than others. So it’s not surprising that training requirements differ as well. Plus, the dangerous chemicals and substances that are covered by WHMIS are also covered by other sections of the OHS laws with their own training requirements. If you’re a safety coordinator, how do you determine which workers need which training?

The Difference Between “Hazardous Substances” & “Controlled Products”
So far, we’ve been using the generic term “dangerous chemicals and substances” to refer to the kinds of substances covered by WHMIS. But the OHS regulations don’t use generic terms. They typically use two terms to refer to these substances:

“Hazardous substance” is a broad term that typically includes any substance or agent (biological, chemical or physical) that could adversely impact workers’ health, such as heat, noise, ammonia, lead or asbestos; and
“Controlled product,” by contrast, is a narrower term, usually defined by the regulations as a hazardous or dangerous substance that’s classified as a controlled product under the federal Hazardous Products Act and its Controlled Products Regulation. Most controlled products are also hazardous substances. In fact, some jurisdictions, such as Fed, BC and NS, specifically define hazardous substance to include controlled products.

The terms “hazardous substance” and “controlled product” sound interchangeable. But they’re not. It’s critical to understand the differences. Why? Because some jurisdictions have two sets of training requirements: one for hazardous substances and another for controlled products. As a result, you need to be sensitive to the differences in terminology to understand your training obligations.

Insider Says: Throughout this article, when we refer to “WHMIS training requirements,” we mean the training requirements that apply to controlled products.

WHMIS Training
Every jurisdiction except Fed requires employers to provide WHMIS training for workers who “work with or in proximity to” a controlled product. Manitoba and Québec have the same requirement but express it in a slightly different way. Manitoba uses the language “work with or near” and in Québec, the operative phrase is “work or are liable to come into contact” with a controlled product. Alberta uses the language “with or in proximity to” in its OHS Act and “with or near” in the OHS Code 2006. AB and MB also require employers to provide WHMIS training for workers who perform work involving the manufacture of a controlled product.
Federal law doesn’t have a specific WHMIS training requirement. Instead, federally regulated employers must provide training to workers who “are likely to handle or be exposed to” hazardous substances, including controlled products (emphasis added).

BC is unique in that its OHS Regulation requires two types of WHMIS training: general and specific. Workers who work with or in proximity to a controlled product must get WHMIS training specific to that controlled product. But the regulations also say that “an employer must ensure that general WHMIS education, as it pertains to the workplace, is provided to workers” [Sec. 5.6(1)]. This language seems to suggest that all workers—whether they work with or near controlled products—must get general WHMIS training.

Hazardous Substance Training
Some jurisdictions have not only WHMIS training requirements but also separate training requirements for hazardous substances in general (some jurisdictions use the term harmful or dangerous substance or hazardous material). These additional requirements for hazardous substance training vary widely:

As noted above, federal employers must train workers who are likely to handle or be exposed to hazardous substances;
In AB, employers must train workers who may be exposed to a “harmful substance”;
In BC, employers must train workers who are or may be exposed to a chemical or biological substance that could cause an adverse health effect;
In MB, employers must train workers who work in a workplace in which a chemical or biological substance creates or may create a risk to workers’ health and safety;
In NB and YT, employers must train workers who are involved in the handling, use, storage or disposal of a hazardous substance;
In ON, employers must train workers who are or may be exposed to a “hazardous material” or “hazardous physical agent”; and
In SK, employers must train workers who are exposed to any chemical or biological substance in the course of their work.

Six jurisdictions—NL, NS, NT, NU, PEI and QC—don’t have separate training requirements for hazardous substances. However, their OHS laws impose a general duty on employers to train workers on all hazards they may face in the workplace. And it’s almost a certainty that the hazards posed by hazardous substances are covered by this general duty.

INTERACTION BETWEEN TRAINING REQUIRMENTS

To sum up, there are not one but two sets of training requirements: one for controlled products under WHMIS and one for hazardous substances under OHS laws. Knowing that these two sets of training requirements exist is important but it’s only half the battle. To determine your training obligations, you also need to understand how these two sets of training requirements interact with each other.

The main differences between the WHMIS and hazardous substance training requirements are with respect to:

The substances they apply to; and
The extent of the worker’s exposure to such substances that’s necessary to trigger the training requirement.

So let’s look at these areas separately.

1. The Type of Substance
The first thing you need to do is ask whether the substance is a controlled product, a hazardous substance or both a controlled product and hazardous substance:

If a substance is a hazardous substance but not a controlled product, then only the hazardous substance training requirements apply.
If a substance is a controlled product, in most cases both the WHMIS and hazardous substance training requirements apply.

So if workers work with controlled products, they require both WHMIS and hazardous substance training. But as a practical matter, you probably don’t have to actually make these workers go through two separate sets of training. That’s because WHMIS training is generally much more extensive and specific than hazardous substance training. So, in most cases, the WHMIS training would cover the ground required by hazardous substance training. In other words, WHMIS training kills two birds with one stone: the controlled product and hazardous substance training requirements. Of course, if a worker is exposed to both a controlled product and a hazardous substance that isn’t a controlled product, he’ll likely have to have both WHMIS training for the former and hazardous substance training for the latter.

2. The Extent of Exposure
The WHMIS and hazardous substance training requirements kick in only if the worker has a certain level of exposure to the controlled product or hazardous substance. So the next thing you need to ask is how much exposure the worker has.

WHMIS. The exposure standard for WHMIS training is very clear, fairly narrow and the same in nearly all jurisdictions: WHMIS training is required for workers who work with or in proximity to the controlled product. The OHS laws and WHMIS regulations don’t define “in proximity to.” So it’s up to you to determine whether a worker works near enough to a controlled product to require WHMIS training. (In part 2 of this series, we’ll give you some advice on how to make such determinations.)

Hazardous substances. The exposure standards for hazardous substances, on the other hand, tend to be broad and vary by jurisdiction. Manitoba’s exposure standard is probably the broadest: If a workplace contains a chemical or biological substance that creates or may create a risk to workers’ health and safety, then all workers in that workplace must get hazardous substance training. On the other end of the spectrum is the exposure standard in NB and YT, which requires training only for workers who are involved in the handling, use, storage or disposal of a hazardous substance. And SK requires hazardous substance training only for workers who are exposed to chemical or biological substances in the course of their work.

In between, you have the exposure standards for Fed, AB, BC and ON, which generally require training for workers who are or may be exposed to a hazardous substance. Again, the OHS laws don’t expand on the phrase “may be exposed” so it’s up to you to determine if a worker works under circumstances in which he may or could be exposed to a hazardous substance. In part 2 of this series, we’ll give you some guidance on how to make that determination.

CONCLUSION
As you can see, answering the seemingly simple question posed at the top of this article—does a controller in an accounting department need WHMIS training—is no simple matter. You need to consider not one but two sets of training requirements and how they interact. More specifically, you need to consider the types of dangerous chemicals and substances to which the controller—or any other worker for that matter—is exposed and the extent of the exposure. Unfortunately, doing so isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. In part 2, we’ll show you how to do it and thereby enable you to determine which workers, if any, need WHMIS and/or hazardous substance training.