New NFPA and OSHA HazCom 2012 Quick Card

The NFPA has posted a new Quick Card to its website to help users quickly compare NFPA 704 with OSHA’s HazCom 2012. Made in partnership with OSHA, it provides side by side information about the two systems. The need for the card grew out of OSHA’s adoption of GHS in March of 2012 which concerned those employers relying on NFPA 704 for hazard communication. Specifically, the ways in which OSHA’s GHS adoption and NFPA use numbers in the communication of hazards via labels was particularly worrisome.

In the Final Rule on HazCom 2012 published in the Federal Register, OSHA explicitly stated that employers could continue to use NFPA and HMIS systems. Based on that allowance, the NFPA and American Coatings Association decided not to make any changes to their system. However, since then, there has been a call from stakeholders for additional guidance on how to use the NFPA and HMIS systems in tandem with GHS aligned HazCom Standard.