Hazardous substances in the workplace

- Almost every workplace contains materials and chemicals that can be hazardous to its employees if they're not handled correctly. The purpose of a Hazard Communication program is to inform you about these hazards and give you the information that you need to know to keep yourself safe and healthy. Think about your workplace for a minute. Manufacturing facilities might contain solvents, coatings, and other industrial chemicals. On construction sites, we see paint, epoxy, waterproofing chemicals, and many other construction products. Landscapers use pesticides and weed killers. And healthcare facilities have medical gases, pharmaceutical products, and other medical products that can be hazardous if they're not used properly. Warehouses, retail facilities, and even offices can have large quantities of cleaning products, petroleum products, paint, photocopier toner, and other caustic substances that need to be handled properly. This is where a Hazard Communication program steps in. Its purpose is to collect information on all of those things that are in your workplace and let you know what hazards they pose and give you proper handling instructions so that you can keep yourself and others safe. A HAZCOM program in the workplace can be extensive because many countries will have requirements for maintaining this information, not only on hazardous chemicals, but on physical products that could become a hazard if they're not stored and handled correctly. For example, a company that sells or uses foam insulation will have Hazard Communication information on the foam because in the event of a fire, it may put off toxic gases. Another example would be a manufacturing facility that uses plastics. While the solid plastic material may not be a hazardous product, the processing of the raw material into the finished product may involve heating it up, which puts off fumes that could be a health hazard if they're inhaled. These are just a couple of examples of physical products, things we wouldn't really think of as chemicals that would be included in a Hazard Communication program. A proper HAZCOM program will be available to everyone in the workplace. Even if you're not working with any of the hazardous chemicals, you may be working near them and you have a right to know what you might be exposed to. In order to do this, you need to understand how a HAZCOM program is structured, what information it contains, and how information is communicated. And that's what I'll cover next.