By Michael MacMillan
As recently as ten years ago, workplace chemical hazard regulations on a national level were virtually nonexistent .Workers who routinely handled dangerous chemicals had few opportunities to educate themselves about the substances with which they worked.
Now into its ninth year, Waste Hazardous Information Materials System (WHMIS) is a joint federal and provincial piece of legislation designed to protect workers from hazardous materials. WHMIS encompasses everything from exotic chemicals to common office equipment and governs all storage and handling applications for potentially dangerous substances.
Affirming a worker's basic "right to know," WHMIS is divided into three components: accurate labeling, the availability of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), and worker education and training. Both employers and suppliers are responsible for maintaining WHMIS standards. However, while WHMIS dictates what must be done, it leaves the decision of how best to apply the regulations in the hands of employers. And despite its simplicity, utilities are nonetheless finding it necessary to integrate WHMIS into their own customized safety system.
Dr. Bob Whiting of the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety said electric utilities use few highly dangerous chemicals outside large generating stations. Most of a utility's WHMIS controlled material consists of more common substances, such as maintenance chemicals, glue, and cleaners. Yet it is because of their high volume and perceived harmlessness, Whiting said, that such chemicals still pose a threat to worker safety.
"These are sorts of things that people often tended to ignore because they are familiar," he explained. "But, of course, there are hazards related to these chemicals."
Increasingly, health and safety officers are encountering problems determining which chemicals in a given product WHMIS designates as dangerous. Steven Libich, Ontario Hydro's Industrial Hygiene Services Manager said manufacturers often sell products under trade names that give no clues as to what chemicals are in them.
"Some places sell concentrated hydrochloric or sulfuric acid as a drain cleaner," Libich explained, "and I ask myself 'well, how many people are trained to properly use concentrated acid'?"
He also believes utilities could do a better job keeping up with new chemical products. The pobrlem, he added, stems not from a lack of effort by management, but from an inability to identify all materials on site. Ontario Hydro and its affiliated businesses store nearly 16 000 hazardous chemicals on site. Keeping track of such a large database is difficult, and many substances which Ontario Hydro and its affiliate companies have committed to eliminating - such as ozone depleting chemicals - can still be found in inventory. And Ontario Hydro is not the only utility in this situation. More and more electric utilities are actively reducing environmentally damaging materials. As a result, utilities are turning to more efficient forms of hazardous chemical databases.
Ian Daniel, Manager of Product Development at B.C. Hydro said his company has found a solution. The provincial utility has developed a CD-ROM formatted training program designed to simplify WHMIS education. Traditional training, Daniel explained, is costly, and too many newly hired or ill employees would often undermine management's efforts. Now instead of scheduled classes, workers need only get to a PC. A test given at the conclusion of the session helps management ensure that everyone is properly trained. Besides, Daniel added, those taking the test at a PC feel less pressure than they would in a traditional classroom.
Access to MSDS information at B.C. Hydro is provided via a separate Windows-based program. Simply called MSDS2, it stores all of the utility's approximately 6,000 MSDS files. To find a product, all users need to is type a word a phrase, and a search engine matches their request. Daniel says the benefits of combining WHMIS with this type of technology are enormous as otherwise time-consuming tasks are made easy. Employees are able to print labels, contact a supplier, or refresh their knowledge of a particular substance, all from an appropriate terminal.
"If someone knows within the next few days they will be using a WHMIS controlled product, they can sit down and go through our program, and they're ready," Daniel said.
Making MSDS files so obtainable renders obsolete the day long training session. Using desktop PCs, workers move at their own pace and obtain information on a "need-to-know" basis.
Ontario Hydro has developed a similar program. Called the Hazardous Materials Information System (HMIS), it too was designed a CD-ROM package. HMIS allows users to cross-reference data and find the least hazardous substance available for a particular task. Libich says it serves the dual purpose of providing workers with instant and accurate information while reducing chemical inventory at Ontario Hydro.
"We find that we have 20, maybe 30 products for the same use, and this system (HMIS) allows you to trim it down to five, and choose the one that poses the least risk," he said.
Large provincial utilities are not the only ones reviewing their approach to WHMIS. David Ireton, Director of Safety and Environment at Toronto Hydro said his utility is keenly aware of the hazards posed by on-site chemicals. Education, Ireton insists, is still the key to safety. However, much like Libich and Daniel, he found his company's MSDS paper file system cumbersome. Now they too are looking at software. Ireton said the municipal utility is currently studying a system which should be in place later this year.
"Instead of having MSDS hard copies in 50 different locations around Toronto Hydro, we'll be able to have these things instantly available anywhere there's an appropriate PC terminal," Ireton said.
And making WHMIS procedures as simple as possible, according to Whiting, maximizes worker knowledge of on-site hazards.
"This is a really good approach to use. It's building on WHMIS, the purpose of which was to put that kind of information into the workplace so people could have ready access to it."
Still, he stresses the positive impact WHMIS has made on workplace health and safety. Even if some utilities take a lax approach enforcing hazard safety, he said, WHMIS is nonetheless a landmark piece of legislation, and it would be a mistake to view it as anything but a tremendous success.
"It's probably rare that its implemented 100 per cent," he admitted, "but the situation with WHMIS is vastly better than the situation before WHMIS in terms of availability of information."
Those interested in obtaining more information about MSDS2 or the WHMIS CD-ROM can call Ian Daniel at (604) 528-2119 or E-mail: ian.daniel@bchydro.bc.ca . You may also visit their web-site at www.whmis.com.
The Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety offers MSDS databases and general worker health & safety information and publications. They can be contacted at 1-800-668-4284 or E-mail custserv@ccohs.ca, or visit their web-site at www.ccohs.com.