What Your Employer Must Tell You About Hazardous Materials

As an employee, you may have many questions for your employer so you know that safety is the utmost of importance in your workplace. Your employer is required by law to tell you about hazards in the workplace. This includes exposure to chemicals and other dangerous situations. If you are a worker who works repeatedly in conditions where radiation or chemicals are present, this may increase your risk of diseases, which is something you should always understand as an employee.

Hazardous Material Communications by Employers 

According to the U.S. Department of Labor General Industry Digest and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, employers are expected to develop and implement a workplace written hazard communication program for the workplace. They must then inform their employees on this program as well as how to handle themselves in a workplace that involves hazardous materials. This must include the implementation of a hazardous chemical inventory that lists the chemicals that are used in that location. The written communication program will specifically spell out warning methods, provide lists of all chemicals that are present, and detail the methods that an employer can use to inform employees of the hazards in their work areas.

Employees must also be trained in the workplace after the workplace adopts a Safety Data Sheet (SDS). These sheets help employees and employers understand the hazards and precautions of the chemicals that they are working with on a daily basis. After this sheet has been developed, it is important for employers to train workers on its information by the standard’s requirements. By June of last year, all employers were required by OSHA to provide additional worker training for new health or physical hazards.

The law requires all employees to take reasonable care to protect the health of their employees, and sometimes this starts with an understanding of the hazardous materials in your workplace. If you feel as if your safety was put in jeopardy and you suffered an injury or illness because of it, call us today. At Maggiano, DiGirolamo & Lizzi, we have the skill and experience to handle your work injury case.