Hazard Communication Systems (HCS) regulations are covered in 29CFR1910.1200. Paragraph (c) provides definitions that people generally don’t like to read. But there is a reason why the definitions are listed right after the scope and applications are given. They are not put at the end in case you don’t know a word. They precede the actual requirements so that you understand what OSHA means as you read these requirements.

Rather than interpreting the requirements based on what a given word might mean, you should interpret the requirements based on what a given word actually means. Here is a sample:

Article:

• What it could mean: A garment, as in a garment.
• What it means: A manufactured article other than a fluid or particle (and which meets the three conditions listed in subsection (c).

Distributer:

• What it could mean: A company that supplies products to wholesale retailers.
• What it means: A company, other than a chemical manufacturer or importer, that supplies hazardous chemicals to other distributors or employees.

Hazardous chemical:

• What it could mean: A flammable, acidic or caustic liquid.
• What it means: Any chemical classified as a physical hazard or health hazard, a simple asphyxiant, a combustible dust, a pyrophoric gas, or a hazard not otherwise classified.

Immediate use:

• What it could mean: Used immediately.
• What this means: The hazardous chemical will be used only by the person transferring it from a labeled container and only during the shift in which it is transferred.

To use:

• What this could mean: Open the container and apply the chemical.
• What it means: to package, manipulate, react, emit, extract, generate as a by-product or transfer.

If you go back and look at each “what that could mean,” you see that it’s a reasonable sense of the term. The problem is, that’s not what OSHA stands for. In the examples given, the difference is great.

It’s not a defense to say, “Oh, I misunderstood,” because OSHA clearly understood what that meant. This issue goes beyond protecting your business from OSHA citations. A civil trial can be ruinous. In a criminal case (a case brought against the defendant by the government), the burden of proof rests entirely on the government and the defendant has nothing to prove. The defendant only needs to prove that he has a reasonable doubt. But in a civil case, this is not the case. At a minimum, your company must demonstrate that it complies with applicable regulations and standards.

A dry, non-flammable, pH-neutral chemical can still pose a health hazard. If your HCS only covers flammable, acidic, or caustic liquids, no matter how good the rest of your HCS is, your company may pay fines to OSHA for HCS violations. And he may have to pay criminal penalties in civil suits.

But the worst part of this problem is that by not communicating the dangers of these substances, you expose your company colleagues to health risks that are disfiguring, paralyzing, deadly, or a combination of both. If you view OSHA’s HCS regulations as intended to help your business protect the people who work there, then do everything you can to understand what OSHA means when it stipulates these regulations.