3E Company Ready to Support Corporate Compliance with OSHA Revised Hazard Communication Standard

January 1, 2011 / 5 min read

Growing GHS Practice Enhances Conformance with Emerging Regulatory Obligations

Carlsbad, CA, September 1, 2011 — 3E Company, a leading provider of EH&S compliance and information management services, today reported on the expanded capabilities of its specialized GHS practice. With the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) alignment of its HazComm Standard (HCS) with the United Nations’ (UN) Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) expected for September 2011, 3E Company has bolstered its GHS practice by further enhancing the GHS-specific features and functionality found in its broad suite of solutions for simplified conformance with emerging and existing regulatory requirements.

3E Company’s regulatory experts have extensively studied the proposed rule and leveraged experience gained from previous GHS projects and implementations around the globe to ensure that its services and solutions are optimized to support immediate conformance initiatives. The company has developed a broad and extensive GHS practice augmented by a skilled staff of GHS experts and aimed at supporting and streamlining conformance with the new OSHA system.

“OSHA’s HCS is a critical factor in environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) and supply chain compliance efforts. And while we take note of OSHA’s plans to align the HCS with the GHS, we also realize that there are differing implementations among the various national-level interpretations of GHS around the globe,” said Jytte Syska, president, ariel operations, and managing director, 3E Company Europe. “The standard is continually evolving and shifting, and we expect that achieving conformance will be quite challenging for many companies. 3E has the experience and the knowledge base to support companies as they navigate this new regulation and to assist them in implementing data and tools to achieve compliance.”

The company anticipates that the new standard will have far-reaching implications for Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and label authoring, publishing, distribution, and management. In addition, the promulgation of the final rule will affect millions of workplaces and have a profound effect on the supply chain. Upstream, manufacturers and distributors will be required to conform to new MSDS format and content requirements. Downstream, producers, importers, and distributors will have a three-year transition period to be in full compliance. The proposed rule also includes a provision that requires employers to train all employees on the new label elements and the standardized safety data sheet format within two years after the publication of the HCS final rule.

3E’s GHS practice includes the following services and solutions to help relieve the burden of conformance:

The Ariel WebInsightTM online chemical regulatory compliance reference tool provides quick access to official GHS classifications, including substance classifications published by the Japanese, European, Korean, Taiwanese, and New Zealand authorities. Features supporting GHS compliance include an innovative GHS mixture classification module, multilingual GHS labels, access to overviews and the full text of national GHS implementations, and a robust phrase library with GHS hazard and precautionary statements in more than 30 languages.
The MSDgen® MSDS authoring system uses Ariel regulatory and/or user-entered data as the basis for automatically computing the GHS classification for any product based on its formulation. The expert rules system within MSDgen is then used to automatically assign the phrase content in more than 40 languages to all MSDS and label sections based on the GHS classification.
The Ariel GHS Content for SAP® EHS Management, including the Ariel Data ManagerTM (ADM) integrated content tool, feeds chemical regulatory data into standard enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, as well as various other corporate EH&S systems. GHS support includes GHS substance classifications data published by various authorities, GHS mixture classification and labeling rules, rules and templates for MSDS preparation, and multilingual GHS phrases. The rules engine uses logic to assign the GHS classification automatically, taking the various countries’ adaptations into account and greatly simplifying or eliminating the guesswork of producing accurate, compliant hazard communication documentation.
A broad suite of outsourced services, including 3E MSDS and Label Authoring as well as Professional Services, can be tailored to a company’s needs. 3E Company can provide GHS classification of substances and mixtures as a separate service or as part of MSDSs and label authoring for companies that need GHS classifications. 3E Company can also author MSDSs in compliance with GHS requirements for the country or region that has adopted GHS.
The award-winning 3E Online®-MSDS Management System and Ariel Data Manager-VMSDS provide proactive revision maintenance to continually process and index updated GHS MSDSs as they are made available by each supplier. Once this data is indexed, the MSDS and the updated GHS information can be loaded directly into SAP via 3E’s ADM-VMSDS application. In addition, 3E Online enables general users to search, print, view, and e-mail inbound vendor and raw material MSDSs in a company-specific database via a simple web browser interface. As GHS requirements increase the burden of vendor MSDS management, 3E Company’s solutions can help reduce the time and resources necessary for effective compliance management.
The 3E MSDS Hosting and Push Distribution System supports the distribution of new GHS-formatted MSDSs to customers. For companies that will need to reissue large numbers of MSDSs as GHS implementation occurs, 3E MSDS Distribution services can significantly reduce the burden associated with ensuring the documents are sent downstream as well as accurately track historical data, such as who receives them and on what date. This system can push MSDS documents to end-user customers by e-mail, fax, or standard mail. This program also enables companies to post their MSDSs to a customized web interface for easy customer access.
GHS training is offered for companies needing additional assistance learning about and conforming to GHS. Available training courses include general training on the implementation of GHS in specific countries around the globe, actual classification training, exploring the impact on MSDSs, and examining how new hazard communication and classification requirements impact a company’s business processes.

To learn more about 3E Company’s GHS practice, please visit: http://3ecompany.com/solutions/ghs-solutions/

About 3E Company
3E Company, a subsidiary of Verisk Analytics, offers a comprehensive suite of data, products, and services for environmental health and safety (EH&S) compliance management. This solutions suite addresses the entire chemical life cycle and includes regulatory research; MSDS authoring, distribution, and management; transportation; emergency response; training; regulatory reporting; and hazardous waste management. 3E provides an industry-leading combination of a 24/7/365 EH&S mission control call center and the world’s premier hazardous substance database of global regulatory and compliance information. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, with additional operations in Canton, Ohio; Bethesda, Maryland; Kingsport, Tennessee; Montreal, Quebec; and Copenhagen, Denmark. For more information on 3E Company, visit www.3ecompany.com.

Release: Immediate

Contact
Jenny Bingham
3E Company
619-980-4205
jbingham@3ecompany.com