Combustible Dusts Classified Under New OSHA HazCom Standard

February 17, 2014- Efforts to properly classify combustible dust hazards are making news.

The United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued an agency memo that will provide guidance to OSHA compliance safety and health officers on the proper classification of their products for combustible dust hazards. The revised Hazard Communication (HazCom) Standard is the source of the compliance guidelines.

In an article entitled "OSHA Memo Addresses Classification of Combustible Dusts Under New HazCom Standard," The Synergist blog on the American Industrial Hygiene Association website (AIHA.org) is reporting that the revised HazCom Standard is aligned with the United Nations' Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).

However, because the GHS does not currently have a combustible dust hazard classification, OSHA amended the definition of "hazardous chemical" to include combustible dust in its HazCom Standard to include coverage of combustible dust hazards.

The memo states, "… where there is evidence that a product has been involved in a deflagration or dust explosion event, it should be classified as a combustible dust. Also, products should be classified in accordance with accepted test results, if they are available.

For a product that has not been involved in such an event and there's no available test data, "manufacturers and importers may use published test data on similar materials or use information on particle size to determine a product's combustible dust hazard," the memo concluded.

Read the full AIHA The Synergist post here. Read the December 27, 2013 OSHA memo here.

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