US chem distributors get extension on new label rules

(Clarification: recasts paragraphs two and three noting industry concerns and that OSHA has provided reassurances about enforcement of the 1 June deadline for labelling requirements.)

WASHINGTON (ICIS)–US chemical distributors said on Monday that federal authorities have resolved a potentially major regulatory conflict that could have caused broad disruption in the chemicals sector supply chain.

The National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) said that it has received assurances from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that a new rule applied to labelling of chemical products has been clarified.

Last week, industry officials were concerned that all US chemicals producers, formulators, blenders and related industry companies would have to be compliance with a new OSHA requirement for hazard communication standards (HCS) by 1 June. HCS covers product labelling and other documentation.

Monday’s deadline has been longstanding and was established by a March 2012 OSHA rule that altered the administration’s own hazard communication standards to conform to the UN’s “Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals”, otherwise known as GHS.

Technically, that March 2012 rule exempts chemical distributors from the 1 June compliance deadline, with OSHA saying they may continue to use pre-existing labels until 1 December this year.

However, in an urgent letter to OSHA a week ago, NACD asked for an “immediate, short-term administrative stay” of the overall GHS mandate until 1 December this year because of some confusing regulatory language in the rule.

NACD president Eric Byer noted to OSHA assistant secretary David Michaels that while the OSHA rule does give distributors until 1 December to comply, the regulation simultaneously defines distributors as “producers” subject to the 1 June deadline.

Byer said on Monday that the clarification from OSHA addresses those NACD concerns.  Specifically, distributors may continue to ship packages labelled by their upstream suppliers without running afoul of the new GHS labelling requirements or incurring fines.

In the last several weeks, uncertainty about the possible misapplication of the GHS rule had triggered “panic and chaos” among distributors.

Paul Hodges studies key influences shaping the chemical industry in Chemicals and the Economy