By Phil Molé, MPH

2026 is off to quite a start for significant regulatory updates. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has officially extended multiple compliance deadlines under the updated Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), aka HazCom 2024. Published in the Federal Register on January 15, 2026, a new OSHA final rule shifts key dates by four months to give industry more time before enforcement begins. This update affects all users of hazardous chemicals in the U.S., throughout the supply chain.

Here’s a quick summary of the background and impacts of the extended timeline.

Background of HazCom 2024

After years of anticipation, OSHA issued a final rule in 2024 updating the HazCom Standard to align with Revision 7, and parts of Revision 8, of the UN’s Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).

Some of the most impactful updates affect how manufacturers of hazardous chemicals classify their chemical products.

For example, HazCom 2024 expands the aerosols hazard class to include non-flammable aerosols, now categorized under a new Category 3. This adjustment aims to enhance user understanding of the specific hazards associated with various aerosols, and the ways that container failure mechanisms differ from those of gases under pressure (aka, gas cylinders), the category that many aerosols previously found themselves in.

The rule also adds a category for chemicals under pressure, following and adopting the categories of chemicals under pressure from GHS Revision 8. The new classification includes liquids or solids pressurized with gas, which improves hazard communication clarity.

Another critical update is the addition of desensitized explosives as a new hazard class. These products, stabilized with a wetting or stabilizing agent, are safer to handle than ordinary explosives if the stabilizing agent is in place and effective. The classification system now includes four categories based on corrected burning rates, offering detailed stability and hazard information to users, including how to confirm that stabilizing agents are in place.

The final rule also modifies the classification of flammable gases, splitting Category 1 into subcategories 1A and 1B, better distinguishing hazards associated with different flammable gases. Pyrophoric and chemically unstable gases fall under Category 1A, emphasizing the need for specific hazard and precautionary statements for safe handling.

Other aspects of the 2024 HazCom final rule change provisions for confidential business information (CBI), chemicals released for shipment, and hazard and precautionary statements, impacting the information that chemical manufacturers need to provide in safety data sheets (SDSs).

For more information about the final rule, check out this previous blog post.

OSHA’s Extended HazCom 2024 Deadlines

OSHA’s final rule extending the HazCom 2024 compliance timeline comes at the eleventh hour. The first original deadline was January 19, 2026 for manufacturers of substances affected by the final rule.

The table below shows the original compliance dates you may have already known about, and the new deadlines established by the January 2026 final rule. The new compliance dates are listed in the right column, in bold.

Category of Chemical User Original Compliance Date New Compliance Date
Manufacturers of chemical substances affected by final rule January 19, 2026 May 19, 2026
Employers using substances affected by the final rule July 20, 2026 November 20, 2026
Manufacturers of chemical mixtures affected by the final rule July 19, 2027 November 19, 2027
Employers using chemical mixtures affected by the final rule January 19, 2028 May 19, 2028

Employers who have affected chemicals in their worksites have deadlines six months after those respective deadlines for chemical manufacturers to ensure they’ve received updated SDSs and shipped container labels from their suppliers. This also allows for time to make sure employers are using the information to update their written HazCom plans and workplace containers.

The Impact of OSHA’s HazCom 2024 Extension

No matter where you are in the chemical supply chain, you have four months longer now than you originally did to comply with updated HazCom requirements. Still, it’s also fair to say that no matter where you are in the supply chain, you should have already done some of the work to align with HazCom 2024 requirements.

How do you feel about this extension? Are you breathing a sigh of relief that you have more time? Do you, conversely, find yourself wishing the extension were even longer? Either way, there’s an urgent need to make sure you have the right support now to meet the approaching deadlines.

If you’ve already completed the work, well done. But take this time to reflect on how challenging it can be to get aligned. There may still be improvements you can make. Chemical regulations aren’t static, and beyond compliance, you need easy access to insights about your hazardous chemicals to keep your employees and business safe. Take some of the time you’ve freed up by meeting your HazCom deadlines to take deeper stock of your chemical management practices. Because it’s one thing to get ahead of compliance, but another to stay ahead.

Let VelocityEHS Support You

There’s never been a more urgent time to make sure your chemical and SDS management practices are working effectively. The VelocityEHS Chemical Management Solution makes it easy for you to maintain an updated SDS library that you and your teams can access from anywhere 24/7.

Keep your SDS library updated with VelocityEHS software as your chemical manufacturers reauthor SDSs in alignment with HazCom 2024. And better position your company to use updated information to refine and optimize your workplace HazCom management practices.

Better Insights, Better Management

Get deeper insights into your chemical inventory with support for chemical ingredient indexing, so you can extract information on chemical ingredients from SDSs and cross-reference them against various regulatory lists, such as the EPA’s Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHSs) and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reportable chemicals. Take advantage of a Levels of Concern (LoC) summary containing regulatory radar screen “hits” and other key information, including established Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) you need to know when managing your indoor air sampling program.

VelocityEHS Chemical Management is just one of the solutions on the unified Accelerate® Platform. Alongside Industrial Ergonomics, Safety, and Operational Risk, the Accelerate Platform provides you with an integrated user experience and unified reporting capabilities for your EHS programs.

Contact us today to learn more about our industry-leading solutions and services and discover the ways we can help you maintain compliance with HazCom.