GHS Resources BIG GHS PICTOGRAM GRAPHICS FILES are avilable.       Download this ZIP ARCHIVE  which contains the 9 pictograms in PNG, JPG, EPS and PSD formats at ~ A4 size.

GHS Education   Comcare Video http://www.comcare.gov.au/preventing/hazards/chemical_hazards/globally_harmonised_system_of_classification_and_labelling_of_chemicals_ghs/ghs_video for awareness. ANU Pulse Course on GHS labeling ANU has a pulse traing course about GHS which is mandatory for anyone handling chemicals. This is a by-enrollment course only and not visible on the main course menu. If you have done a chemical safety course or are a registered CMS user you should be automatically enrolled and receiving annoying emails from the HRMS reminding you to complete the course.   If you are a user and not auto-enrolled, contact the work envionment group ( whstraining@anu.edu.au) to get enrolled.

GHS labeling & ANU GHS label audit :  Quick guide
- Joe Cali RSES joe.cali@anu.edu.au  x53246

A new system for naming and labelling chemicals with their hazards is being introduced globally. This
new system is known as the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals
(GHS) and has been developed by the United Nations. The GHS will be integrated into chemical
manufacturing and trade processes by Australia over the period January 2012 to December 2016. 
 
What is the GHS?
The GHS introduces a new system of chemical hazard classification, labelling and safety data sheet
requirements that enhances the protection of human health and the environment from hazardous
chemicals. It does this by providing an international system of chemical hazard communication and a
uniform way of classifying chemicals that makes it safer to recognise and trade in hazardous
chemicals worldwide. The goal of the GHS is to identify the inherent hazards of chemical substances
and mixtures, and to convey information about these hazards. The GHS is not intended to harmonize
risk assessment procedures or risk management decisions.

The GHS system has been implemented in Australia under the new Work Health and Safety Act 2011
and the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011. The key requirements for hazardous chemical
management are described in “Chapter 7 Hazardous Chemicals” of the Work Health and Safety
Regulation 2011; and the specific naming, labelling and hazard requirements of  the GHS are further
described through the:

• Hazardous Chemicals Code of Practice 2003 
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2011 
• Labelling of Workplace Hazardous Chemicals Code of Practice 2011 
• Preparation of Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals Code of Practice 2011 
  

So what changes are occurring with the introduction of the GHS?
The changes for schools are minor as the WHS Regulations 2011 largely apply to chemical
manufacturers and suppliers, and schools are not suppliers. However, staff and students will need to
become familiar with new labels, labelling requirements and changes in hazard classification.
Currently, the Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE) is updating all its
documents to comply with these changes.

In the ANU workplace, it is expected that the GHS elements will be adopted over time, including GHS
physical and health hazard criteria in line with the requirements of the WHS regulation 2011.
 

ANU has received the following specific advice about our chemical inventory : - SafeWork Australia released the following statement on their website (to be followed by a bulletin, hopefully, with more information):   End users of hazardous chemicals will be affected to a lesser extent. Users of hazardous chemicals are not required to relabel or dispose of existing stock. From 1 January 2017 onwards, suppliers and end users of hazardous chemicals must only supply and accept hazardous chemicals which have been classified and labelled in accordance with the GHS. See: http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/whs-information/hazardous-chemicals/pages/hazardous-chemicals-other-substances   What this means is that the University will not be required to relabel inventory of hazardous chemicals that are compliant under the NOHSC approved criteria – that inventory may simply be rolled over and consumed although any purchases from 1 January 2017 must be GHS compliant, both labels and SDS.   Further to this please see http://www.comcare.gov.au/preventing/hazards/chemical_hazards/globally_harmonised_system_of_classification_and_labelling_of_chemicals_ghs/ghs_video for awareness and distribution to your areas.   The animation has a viewing time of around 12 minutes and takes the viewer through general awareness of the GHS which would likely satisfy much of your general awareness needs.

Note :   Labels the are not comppliant must be relabeled. the original label must remain visible and not be covered.

These are the older NOHSC type lables that have been applied to chemicals we have used for many years.  

 


The key elements of a GHS compliant label are : -









New hazard pictograms do not correspond exactly to the old NOHSC Dangerous Goods Class diamonds.  
These DGC diamonds will continue to be used for transporting chemicals and so you will continue to see
them on trucks, delivery areas, and on shipping cartons.  Only the bottles will change to the new labels.  








ANU GHS label audit during the first CMS stocktake.......What do you need to do?

These notes apply only to using the excel spreadsheet for the 2016 Chemwatch Stocktake and GHS label audit. They are not valid after January 2017. During 2017, use the CMS built-in stock take tool to conduct stock take and reconcilation.

During 2016 stocktake,  fill in the GHS audit column in the Excel Spreadsheet.  
Mark the compliance status of chemicals as non-compliant, GHS complaint or NOHSC compliant

This is what it looks like before being filled out.  






Click on a cell in the barcode column (B) and start scanning labels in your cupboards.  If the barcode is in the system, Columns C, D, and E will auto populate.  
Col f is a list of all unaccounted for chemical barcodes.  When you scan a barcode, that number disappears from column F.  

Col G is the status of the chemical label.   I have produced these action bar codes with the three possible responses for the GHS label audit.  


If you have followed the ANU chemical  labeling guidelines over the past few years, you are GHS compliant.


This is what a sheet looks like after stocktake scanning :






Non-compliant     must be relabeled.  See below.  

GHS complaint or NOHSC compliant may be left as they are.  NOHSC labels should be removed from stock when used. 

ACTION BARCODES FOR GHS LABEL AUDIT

There is a video URL referred to above http://www.comcare.gov.au/preventing/hazards/chemical_hazards/globally_harmonised_system_of_classification_and_labelling_of_chemicals_ghs/ghs_video
I thoroughly recommend you view it.  


Examples of non-compliant labels
 
 No red diamond pictograms - not GHS

 
Uses old DGC class diamonds.  No red diamond pictograms and no hazard phrases - not GHS







Non-compliant labels that need to be replaced with GHS labels
 Neither NOHSC nor GHS compliant.  GHS Label needs to be added without covering the original label.  



 Domestic chemical - aluminium sulphate. GHS Label needs to be added without covering the original label.  




 
The label was GHS compliant but original solution has been replaced with a diluted solution.  The hazard rating, danger phrases etc for the chemical and associated has therefore changed and the bottle needs to be relabeled.  





The label was NOHSC compliant but original solution has been replaced with a diluted solution.  It now needs to be relabeled.  This is one of 5 winchesters used to store dilute leach acid for cleaning ICP sample vials. This acid is at the end of it's life cycle and is about to be disposed.  Rather than relabeling these, we are going to buy 5 new GHS labeled winchesters of 2M HNO3 (13%).  These will be refilled with 13% diluted conc acid in future.  



Home made label. I made it with hazard & precautionary statements but it used old DGC class diamonds.  Can replace the pictogram only and this will be GHS compliant.  
As it is NOHSC compliant I could leave it but because I am the manufacturer, I have relabeled all my solutions.  



Re-labeling solutions

The easy way to relabel  is to use chemwatch.
1. Find the SDS for the chemical in MANIFEST
2. Press the labels button
3. Select the user defined tab
4. Generate an appropriate sized label from the list of templates.
5. Affix without covering the old label.  

Step 5 is sometimes quite difficult and on very small bottles impossible. On 500ml bottles,  I use a smallish label in the gap and cover the old class diamond.  











Latest Update

The following update on transition was circulated on 7 December, 2016 by the Work Enviornment Group.  

Hello Safety Officers, (Chemical Stakeholders cc’d)   This is not a change in Legislation, so it does not have to be communicated as broadly as a Change in Legislation Communication, but it is for your awareness. Please share accordingly.   The has been a change in the interpretation of GHS Labelling by Comcare this week that you need to be aware of.   I believe the University already has agreements in place with our suppliers that will not allow any chemicals to be sent to the ANU since 01/09/2016 without the correct GHS labelling and correct SDS. This was put in place proactively by the Chemical Management Stakeholders team in about June 2016 to ensure that the ANU would meet our commitments to the January 1/2017 cut off.   I have followed this up with our supply chain, and we will be sending out a brief note to our major suppliers stating that we continue to expect all chemicals to be shipped with the correct GHS labelling and SDS. Additionally, I have a call in to a senior person in Comcare in respect to how this interpretation will be enforced, but have not heard back. I suspect it will not affect how Comcare operates, and will just give them some breathing room in resptect to enforcement.   Neither of the two articles below have indicated what Comcare’s position will be on SDS, so we must conclude there is no change and SDS sheets will be expected for everything we have in stock and should be accompanying all deliveries.   In summary, Comcare has relaxed its stance on GHS labelling somewhat and will allow chemicals purchased by suppliers in Australia since 01/01/2016 to be shipped to customers like the ANU without the compliant GHS labelling. Comcare will also allow customers like the ANU to accept chemicals purchased by suppliers after 01/01/2016  without the correct GHS labels.   What this means to us:   ·         Stay the course, keep doing what we are doing our practices, procedures and processes do not change and remain sound and compliant.   ·         Every chemical we receive should still come with the correct GHS labelling and also the correct compliant SDS. ·         The supply chain is sending out a letter to suppliers to indicate that we still expect compliant labelling and SDS’s   ·         If a chemical is shipped to us without the compliant labelling, it is my suggestion that we isolate the chemical temporarily and that we allow our Supply Chain to work with the vendor/supplier to have GHS labels supplied to us before use. If it is very urgent, perhaps we can apply the correct labels in each area in advance of official supplier labelling arriving as an exception. The new label when received should be applied for consistency.   ·         If the Comcare inspector gets back to me today and indicates anything different , I will let this group know.   Thanks, Mark   Labelling requirements for hazardous chemicals in the supply chain Chemicals manufactured or imported before 1 January 2017 can continue to be supplied without needing to meet the labelling requirements of the model Work Health and Safety Regulations. Safe Work Australia CEO Michelle Baxter said that Members agreed to this approach on 25 November 2016 in response to concerns raised by chemical suppliers. “This approach will ensure a smooth transition to the globally harmonised system, or GHS, and will avoid an unnecessary burden on suppliers to re-label existing chemical stock,” Ms Baxter explained. “From 1 January next year, hazardous chemicals may only be supplied to other workplaces without GHS labelling if they were manufactured or imported on or before 31 December 2016, and were correctly labelled at that time. “In 2017, manufacturers and importers operating under harmonised work health and safety laws must label their hazardous chemicals in accordance with the GHS under the model WHS Regulations. “I encourage all suppliers to accept only correctly labelled stock from this point forward,” said Ms Baxter. Each jurisdiction will be implementing this approach individually within their work health and safety laws. To understand how this approach will be applied in your jurisdiction, contact your local work health and safety regulator or visit our website for more information.     Wednesday 07 December 2016 2:16pm Latest News · Workplace safety · Jurisdiction · Legislation, regulation and caselaw · Issue/challenge/risk Australian employers have been granted permission to supply or accept chemicals that don't comply with the new global labelling system after 1 January, while NSW has granted a number of exemptions from the system. Meanwhile, Safe Work Australia has explained how Australian Standards interact with WHS laws. SWA members recently agreed that chemicals manufactured or imported before 1 January 2017 can be supplied after that date without meeting the labelling requirements of the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), agency CEO Michelle Baxter announced yesterday. SWA's previous policy position was that end-users didn't need to re-label existing stock, but "should not accept new hazardous chemical products that are not GHS labelled" from 1 January, when the GHS takes full effect (see related article). The GHS has been phased in under the model WHS Regulations since early 2012 (see related article), but Baxter said yesterday that the policy change was needed to "ensure a smooth transition" to the system. "[It] will avoid [any] unnecessary burden on suppliers to re-label existing chemical stock," she said. "From 1 January next year, hazardous chemicals may only be supplied to other workplaces without GHS labelling if they were manufactured or imported on or before 31 December 2016, and were correctly labelled at that time," Baxter explained. "In 2017, manufacturers and importers operating under harmonised work health and safety laws must label their hazardous chemicals in accordance with the GHS under the model WHS Regulations," she said. "I encourage all suppliers to accept only correctly labelled stock from this point forward."   Thanks, Mark     Mark Brokloff Associate Director Work Environment Group Australian National University Chancelry Building 10B (Lower Ground) The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 P: + 61 2 6125 1471 |M:0409 367 875 / 0477 317 424  mark.brokloff@anu.edu.au