HMIS® – hazardous materials identification system – The new HMIS® III is now available

Citation

(2003), "HMIS® – hazardous materials identification system – The new HMIS® III is now available", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 32 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.2003.12932fab.004

HMIS® – hazardous materials identification system – The new HMIS® III is now available

HMIS® – hazardous materials identification system – The new HMIS® III is now available

Keywords: Hazardous materials, Health and safety

HMIS® is a complete program that helps employers comply with occupational health and safety committee's (OSHAs) Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). The program uses a numerical hazard rating system, labels with coloured bars, and training materials to inform workers of chemical hazards in the workplace. Personal protective equipment information is supplied to give employees the information needed to protect themselves from hazardous materials they might encounter on the job.

OSHA stated in the preamble to the 1983 HCS that "Labels prepared in accordance with the NPCA Hazardous Materials Identification System would generally be in compliance with this standard". OSHA recently confirmed the acceptability of HMIS® as an in-plant hazard communication tool. In the preamble to the 1994 revised HCS, OSHA indicated that this type of system continues to be an acceptable means of complying with the standard.

Those familiar with the HMIS® know that it has conveyed key information on hazardous chemicals for over 20 years. When NPCA first constructed the HMIS®, it used health, flammability, and reactivity fields similar to those then being used by the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA), which had developed a parallel system for emergency responders. Although NPCA developed its own OSHA-oriented health ratings criteria, we chose to adopt the widely recognized ratings criteria used by NFPA for flammability and reactivity.

While reactivity has worked well over the years, it has functioned, in effect, as a surrogate for the more specific physical hazards, such as organic peroxides, addressed by the OSHA Hazcom. In 1996, NFPA changed its system significantly, abandoning "Reactivity" for "Instability". Although NFPA's new measure was undoubtedly more functional for the emergency responder community, it required NPCA to re-examine HMIS® to assess its impact. After reviewing the NFPA system, NPCA's OHSC decided that HMIS and its users should go in a different direction, and resolved to use this opportunity to make HMIS® an even better system for its users.

What is the most critical change to HMIS® III?

Physical hazard. The new HMIS III provides employees the tools to understand and handle chemicals exhibiting a variety of physical hazards with a far greater degree of precision. Although "Reactivity" has provided useful information for the physical hazards encompassed in the OSHA Hazcom, HMIS® III now provides more information about a chemical's physical hazard(s). The specific physical hazards that the Hazcom addresses are flammability, compressed gases, explosives, organic peroxides, oxidizers, pyrophorics, unstable-reactive and water- reactive chemicals. The new HMIS III not only specifically incorporates each hazard, with specific criteria to evaluate the degree of hazard, but permits employers to identify the hazard present with an icon or symbol. Under the new HMIS® III, a worker can know immediately, for example, that a material he is handling is rated as an explosive, and that it is rated as a "3", giving him or her much more precise and useful information about the safe handling of that material.

The new HMIS® III also provides users a wide variety of icons to enhance the utility of the new HMIS® III label. These new icons include not only the newly incorporated physical hazards, but also icons for target organs. Additionally, icons for PPE will continue to be a feature of HMIS® III under the new version.