The Division of Public Safety and Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), and the Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health Unit of the Department of Health (DOH), in consultation with the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), and with the advice of the Public Employees’ Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board, propose amendments, new rules, repeals, and recodifications at N.J.A.C. 12:100 Health and Safety Standards for Public Employees, particularly within N.J.A.C. 12:100-7, which establishes the Standard for Hazard Communication.
N.J.A.C. 12:100-7 establishes the standard for communication of workplace hazards to public employees and implements the New Jersey Public Employees’ Occupational Safety and Health (PEOSH) Act by establishing qualification standards for persons providing hazard communication training, and requiring public employees who are exposed to hazardous substances in the workplace to receive initial and refresher training in hazard communication.
In 2012, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promulgated a final rule that updated its then-existing hazard communication standard to incorporate therein the “Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS)” (“HazCom 2012”). Inasmuch as existing N.J.A.C. 12:100 incorporates by reference existing OSHA standards, “as amended and supplemented,” the HazCom 2012 became applicable to public workers upon its enactment by the OSHA. However, the existing rules at N.J.A.C. 12:100-7 contain references to and text from the version of the OSHA hazard communication standard that preceded the HazCom 2012. Therefore, the DOLWD and the DOH are proposing substantive amendments, new rules, repeals, and recodifications that would (1) remove references to the version of the OSHA hazard communication standard that preceded the HazCom 2012, (2) incorporate by reference the HazCom 2012, require initial and refresher training to be consistent with the HazCom 2012, (3) add definitions of terms, and (4) establish as appendices the Right to Know poster and brochure, which are distributed as part of training.
The proposal appears in the June 6, 2016, issue of the New Jersey Register. The public has until August 5, 2016, to comment on the proposal.
Persons wishing to comment on the proposal must submit written comments either (1) electronically by August 5, 2016, to http://www.nj.gov/health/legal/ecomments.shtml or (2) by regular mail postmarked on or before August 5, 2016, to Joy L. Lindo, Director, Office of Legal and Regulatory Compliance, New Jersey Department of Health, PO Box 360, Trenton, NJ 08625-0360.
LexisNexis provides free online access to the New Jersey Register at http://www.lexisnexis.com/njoal. An unofficial copy of the proposal is also available from the websites of the DOLWD at http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/lwdhome/content/LWD_LawRuleAdminDecisions.html and the DOH at http://nj.gov/health/legal/open.shtml.
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