Impact of globalization on American workers' access to information on chemical hazards

Globalization of manufacturing has resulted in the "offshoring" of many American jobs to low-wage countries with few protections for worker health and safety. During the G.W. Bush Administration (2001-2009), OSHA initiated efforts, in cooperation with international agencies including the United Nations, to develop a "globally harmonized system" for informing workers around the world about hazards of chemical exposure. In 2009, OSHA proposed a standard for a "Globally Harmonized System" (GHS), conforming American worker "right-to-know" about chemical hazards to the new international standard. Although the international GHS may provide more information to workers in less-developed-countries than those workers previously had, the proposed OSHA GHS standard is likely to reduce the quantity and quality of information on hazardous substances provided to American workers. OSHA's proposed GHS standard is a modification of the Hazard Communication (HazCom) standard, which was promulgated in 1983, during the Reagan Administration. HazCom was not intended to give workers information on the identity of the chemicals to which they were exposed. Rather, HazCom had as its central feature provision to workers of material safety data sheets (MSDS), prepared by employers and chemical manufacturers, which give workers risk/hazard assessments. The GHS proposed standard is likely to result in safety data sheets (SDS) even less informative than the often inadequate MSDS of HazCom. This report compares and contrasts the HazCom and GHS standards, and also discusses chemical hazard information in countries other than the United States.