What They Don't Know Might Kill Them: Why New Members Need To Know About Hazardous Materials and How This Information Might Save Their Lives

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazardous Communication Standard (HCS) 29 CFR 1910.1200 requires that information regarding hazards related to chemicals and substances used by workers be shared with employees. The knowledge of hazardous materials would allow workers to protect themselves from harmful materials that could affect their health. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that new employees of a large manufacturing company in the Midwest were largely unaware of their legal rights as they apply to hazardous materials information, their exposures to hazardous materials, and employee rights to chemical and exposure information. The subjects were 38 new employees and members a United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) Local 974. The anonymous subjects were queried using a paper and pencil questionnaire completed at two different new employee orientations conducted at the union hall on a single day. All of the participants understood the importance of knowing the signs and symptoms of exposure to the hazardous materials they worked with. However, 60% did not know what a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) was and 75% did not know how to use the computer to access MSDS information. The results of the study suggest that the current method of teaching new employees about hazardous exposures is inadequate.