WHMIS What does WHMIS stand for What does

WHMIS

What does WHMIS stand for?

What does WHMIS stand for? • • • Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System

Three Key WHMIS Elements: 1. Labels on hazardous materials and their containers. Labels immediately alert employers and workers to the dangers of products and provide basic safety precautions. 2. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs). These technical bulletins provide detailed information on the hazards of the product as well as precautionary measures and first aid procedures for immediate response. 3. Worker Education and Training. With these programs, workers receive the instruction on hazards and training in safe work procedures that they need to work safely around or near hazardous materials.

Introduction to WHMIS provides information about many hazardous materials used in the workplace. WHMIS calls these hazardous materials controlled products. Under WHMIS, workers have the right to receive information about each controlled product they use---its identity, hazards, and safety precautions. Classification system of six hazard classes. These classes are depicted by eight hazard symbols that identify the specific hazards of controlled products. After a controlled product has been classified, the following three WHMIS elements are used to communicate health and safety information: • WHMIS labels • Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) • WHMIS education and training programs

Hazardous Symbols:

Compressed Gas

Flammable

Oxidizing

Immediately Poisonous

Toxic

Biohazardous

Corrosive

Dangerously Reactive

What is a WHIMIS Label? • A WHMIS label is a source of information, on a controlled product. The WHMIS label is designed to alert employers and workers, in an easily understood way, to the hazards of the product and the precautions to be taken with it. • A label may be a mark, sign, stamp, device, seal, sticker, ticket, tag, or wrapper and must be attached to, or imprinted, stencilled, or embossed on the controlled product or its container. • All materials must have a label. If they don’t, DO NOT USE!

MSDS A Material Safety Data Sheet is a technical bulletin that provides specific hazard information, safe handling information, and emergency procedures for a controlled product. Since the MSDS contains detailed health and safety information specific to each controlled product, it should be used as a key source of information for developing training programs and safe work procedures. • Hanging in finishing room

What is on a MSDS? 1. Product Information: Product identifier, product use, manufacturer and supplier names, addresses, and emergency telephone numbers 2. Hazardous Ingredients: A list of ingredients 3. Physical Data: Parameters such as physical state, odour, or boiling point that physically characterize the product 4. Fire and explosion Hazard: Characteristics of the substance that indicate the likelihood of its ignition under various conditions, and information on the means of extinction 5. Reactivity Data: Information on the chemical instability of the product and chemicals with which it may dangerously react 6. Toxicological Properties: Information on likely routes of entry to the body and the short-term (acute) and longterm (chronic) health effects from product exposure 7. Preventive Measures: Specific personal protective equipment, handling procedures, and engineering controls to be used during the product’s shipping, storage, use, and disposal, and in emergency circumstances of leaks, spills, or other releases 8. First Aid Measures: Specific first aid measures related to acute effects of overexposure to the product 9. Preparation Information: Identification of those responsible for the MSDS and date of preparation