During a ceremony, Wednesday, at U.S. Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C., Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Suzy McDonald, director general, Workplace Hazardous Materials Directorate, of the Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety (HECS) Branch of the Department of Health of Canada to collaborate on implementing the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling (GHS) in their respective countries, as well as any future developments of the GHS.
"Today we live and work in a global environment with varying and sometimes conflicting national and international requirements," Dr. Michaels said "Through GHS and now this MOU, OSHA and Health Canada have forged a relationship to jointly provide concise information to protect those exposed to hazardous chemicals."
The agreement states OSHA and HECS will work together to reduce systematic barriers between the systems responsible for occupational safety and health of workplace chemicals and collaborate to reach common positions on proposed updates to the system.
OSHA, who aligned its Hazard Communication Standard with the GHS in March 2012, is participating in the US-Canada High Level Regulatory Coordination Council to improve regulatory cooperation and adopt methods to promote economic growth, job creation and benefits to consumers and businesses through increased regulatory transparency and coordination.
For more information on the new HazCom standard, click here.