Health Canada and US OSHA Aligning Global Harmonized System Hazard

On March 3, 2016, Health Canada and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hosted a webinar designed to update stakeholders on the development of a "work plan" to further align US and Canadian hazard communication regulations.

Development of the work plan is part of the process of phasing-in the implementation of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals in Canada and the US between February 2015 and December 2018 and to co-ordinate efforts in any future developments of the GHS.

With workplace hazard communication regulations in Canada and the US aligning under the GHS, a key goal is to ensure that the requirements for hazard classification and communication will be met, to the extent possible, with one label and one safety data sheet. To this end the work plan aims to:

reduce variances through on-going collaboration of guidance materials; and
develop an approach for synchronizing implementation of the GHS updates.

A final opportunity to discuss plans and their implementation will be offered at the binational Regulatory Cooperation Council stakeholder event to be held in Washington, DC on May 4-5. Final plans are to be released on June 30, 2016

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