Health and Safety A-Z
Topic: Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System , WHMIS (Globally Harmonized System, GHS)
Summary:
WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Information System) is an information system that has been developed to help ensure workers have the information they need to protect themselves, and others, when working with hazardous materials.
WHMIS consists of 3 parts:
- Training of anyone who works with or near a hazardous material
- Labels, used to identify any container holding a hazardous material, and
- Material safety data sheets (MSDSs), used to provide detailed technical information.
WHMIS first came into law in Ontario in 1988 (WHMIS 1988) but changes are being made to incorporate the World Health Organization’s Globally Harmonized System (GHS). Currently in a transition period,
WHMIS 2015 will have many similarities to WHMIS 1988, also some significant differences:
- Unchanged: Requirements for training, labelling and technical information
- Changed: New hazard classes and pictograms, specific signal words and hazard statements, Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) with a defined format and 16 (vs. 9) categories of information.
- Changes to WHMIS will be phased in over multiple years, largely due to the complexity of co-ordinating of international, federal and provincial laws. (Ontario’s regulations have not yet been finalized.) During this transition period suppliers are able to provide materials in either the WHMIS 1988 or WHMIS 2015 format, meaning that the people who depend on WHMIS must understand the both the old and the new systems.
A free, online course, WHMIS after GHS is available through the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.
Trent employees can do their WHMIS 1988 training online (i.e. on Blackboard). The course will be updated to incorporate WHMIS 2015 during the 2015 / 2016 academic year.
For more information see:
Additional Resources:
Last Revised: December 10, 2015