From: David Roberts <droberts**At_Symbol_Here**DEPAUW.EDU>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] question on Hazcom training
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2016 12:50:26 -0500
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 2D0F6DB6-24F9-4F6A-91B9-A9A14E91AFE7**At_Symbol_Here**depauw.edu
In-Reply-To <496160477.353013748.1450889601440.JavaMail.zimbra**At_Symbol_Here**cableone.net>


Hello world,

I have what I feel is a simple question on hazcom training. Let"s try not to take this to the worlds edge here, but instead just focus on what is in fact necessary and needed here. I"m at a small (2000 student) Liberal Arts college. I have a Ph.D. in chemistry, and have been managing our chemical storage for the past 18+ years. I"m a state certified hazmat technician (with our local and state fire responders). With that, I"ve had a lot of training in the area of hazardous waste, waste management, osha certs, epa audits, nfpa, etc‰?|

But, I am uncertain of what to do here. At what level do most people go to with training of GHS and the hazard communication plan. Is it just the concept of where do we store MSDS"s (that are basically just cleaning supplies), what labels are put on our cleaning chemicals, etc‰?|??? Outside of academics, we really do not have a load of chemicals (really, I promise). Our cleaners that we have adopted are all green certified (whatever that means), and so there really isn"t a whole lot here. Is it necessary to train all of our facilities people on the hazcom standard, or can we simply make sure all the supervisors know and leave it at that. What is the rule here? I do understand the "right to understand" concept and ensuring that all employees need to know what they have and what they are working with. But frankly, the majority do not ever see a chemical and harsher than windex while working here.

So we do have grounds people, and they are working with fertilizers/pesticides. Most of them have outside certifications that allow them to apply things, so they have training above and beyond. For them, I see maybe going over this information. We have a few others that also may apply. I guess I"m just trying to see if people get third shift and janitors to go through this training and how necessary that is. I am more than willing to do that, there is no fight on that, but if I can minimize how many people I have to torment with these trainings, that would be nice.

I"m just wondering what others do. I can do an online thing that is simple, maybe a part of employee orientation, but what is the frequency of the refreshers?

I understand that part of the hazard communication plan is to define training, so I guess that"s what I"m asking here. How do most define it, and what do they actually do?

Thanks.

Dave

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