Employers bear the primary legal responsibility for informing employees about chemical hazards in the workplace. Under OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), every employer that uses hazardous chemicals must develop a written hazard communication program, train workers on the specific chemicals they’re exposed to, and make safety data sheets available at all times. But employers aren’t the only ones with obligations. Chemical manufacturers, importers, and distributors also play a role upstream.
What Employers Must Do
The Hazard Communication Standard places the heaviest burden on employers because they control the work environment. If your workplace has hazardous chemicals of any kind, your employer is required to do three things: maintain a written hazard communication program, ensure every chemical container is properly labeled, and provide you with training and access to safety data sheets.
The written program is the backbone of compliance. It must describe how the employer will handle labeling, how safety data sheets will be organized and made accessible, and how employee training will be conducted. This isn’t a one-time document that sits in a filing cabinet. It needs to reflect the actual chemicals present at the worksite and be updated as conditions change.
Training is required at two key points: when you’re first assigned to a job involving chemical exposure, and whenever a new chemical hazard is introduced into your work area. Training must cover the specific hazards of the chemicals you work with, how to read labels and safety data sheets, and what protective measures to follow. There’s no set calendar for refresher training, but the trigger is clear: any new hazard means new training.
What Manufacturers and Importers Must Do
Before a chemical ever reaches your workplace, the companies that produce or import it have their own set of duties. Chemical manufacturers and importers must classify the hazards of every chemical they make or bring into the country. They then communicate those hazards to employers and workers through standardized labels and safety data sheets.
Every container of a hazardous chemical that leaves a manufacturing or distribution facility must carry a label with six specific elements: the product identifier, a signal word (like “Danger” or “Warning”), hazard statements describing the nature of the risk, precautionary statements explaining how to handle it safely, pictograms, and the name, address, and phone number of the responsible company.
Manufacturers and importers must also develop a safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical and send it to distributors and employers with the initial shipment. Whenever the safety data sheet is updated with new information, a revised version must accompany the next shipment. This chain of information is what makes the system work: manufacturers classify and document the hazards, then pass that documentation along so employers can use it to protect their workers.
What Safety Data Sheets Cover
Safety data sheets follow a standardized 16-section format so that the same information appears in the same place regardless of which company produced the chemical. The first section identifies the chemical and the supplier’s contact information. Section 2 lays out the hazard classification, signal word, and pictograms. Section 3 lists the ingredients and their concentrations.
The sections that matter most in day-to-day work tend to be first-aid measures (Section 4), which describe what to do immediately if someone is exposed; handling and storage guidance (Section 7), which covers safe practices like ventilation and incompatible chemicals to keep separated; and exposure controls (Section 8), which specifies what protective equipment you should wear. Other sections address fire-fighting recommendations, spill cleanup procedures, physical properties like flash point and boiling point, stability and reactivity risks, and toxicological information.
Your employer must keep these sheets readily accessible to you during your shift. You don’t need to ask permission or justify why you want to see one.
How to Read Chemical Labels
Labels are your first line of information about a chemical’s hazards. OSHA’s standard aligns with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS), which uses a set of standardized pictograms inside red-bordered diamonds. There are nine pictograms, each representing a different category of hazard:
- Flame: flammable materials, self-heating chemicals, and those that emit flammable gas
- Flame over circle: oxidizers that can intensify a fire
- Exploding bomb: explosives and certain reactive chemicals
- Skull and crossbones: chemicals that are acutely toxic (fatal or toxic at low doses)
- Corrosion: chemicals that cause skin burns, serious eye damage, or corrode metals
- Health hazard: longer-term risks like cancer, reproductive harm, organ damage, or respiratory sensitization
- Exclamation mark: lower-level irritants, skin sensitizers, and chemicals harmful at higher doses
- Gas cylinder: gases stored under pressure
- Environment: aquatic toxicity (this pictogram is not mandatory under OSHA but may appear)
If you see more than one pictogram on a container, the chemical poses multiple types of risk. The signal word tells you the severity: “Danger” is more serious than “Warning.”
Your Rights as an Employee
You have the legal right to access safety data sheets for any chemical you work with or near. You also have the right to access your own exposure records and medical records related to chemical exposure. When you or a designated representative (such as a union rep) requests these records, your employer must provide them in a reasonable time frame, and copies must be provided at no cost to you.
These rights exist so you can make informed decisions about your own safety and, if needed, share records with a doctor who is evaluating whether a health problem is work-related.
What Happens When Employers Don’t Comply
Hazard communication violations are consistently among the most frequently cited OSHA standards. As of 2024, a serious violation carries a maximum penalty of $16,131. Willful or repeated violations can reach $161,323 per violation. These amounts are adjusted annually for inflation.
OSHA updated the Hazard Communication Standard in May 2024, aligning it with the seventh revision of the GHS (up from the third revision adopted in 2012). The update improves labeling and safety data sheet requirements and brings the U.S. standard closer to what Canada and other countries use. If your workplace hasn’t updated its hazard communication program recently, the new rule may require changes to labels, data sheets, and training materials.