Carcinogens

 

Carcinogens are hazardous substances at your jobsite that can cause cancer. This handout points out the Hazard Communication (HazCom) Standard’s requirements for handling carcinogens. All requirements of the HazCom standard must be followed when dealing with chemicals considered to be carcinogenic.

As with all hazardous substances, carcinogen exposure should be controlled primarily using engineering and process controls such as ventilating a workspace. Personal protective equip­ment should only be used after other measures fail or are not feasible.

How OSHA determines a carcinogen

OSHA’s HazCom Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200, defines a carcinogen as a chemical that:

·         Has been evaluated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and found to be a carcinogen or potential carcinogen.

·         Is listed as a carcinogen or potential carcinogen in the Annual Report on Carcinogens published by the National Toxicology Program (NTP).

·         Is regulated by OSHA as a carcinogen.

Safety data sheets

Only chemical manufacturers and importers are required to perform hazard determinations on chemicals. Any chemical your company receives that is regulated by OSHA as a carcino­gen, or is on one of the previously mentioned lists, must be labeled as such, and an entry must be made on the Safety Data Sheet (SDS).

Labels and other forms of warning

Labels provide an immediate warning of the hazards to which you may be exposed. Chemi­cals “known to be carcinogenic” and those that may “reasonably be anticipated to be carcino­genic” by NTP must have warnings on the label and information on the SDS. All IARC listed chemicals in Groups 1 (carcinogenic to humans), and 2A (probably carcinogenic to humans), must include appropriate entries on both the SDS and label. Group 2B chemi­cals (possibly carcinogenic to humans) need be noted only on the SDS.

Employee training

You must have additional training when a new physical or health hazard is introduced at your worksite. If the newly introduced hazard is a suspect carcinogen, and there has never been a carcinogenic hazard in the workplace before, then new training for carcinogenic haz­ards must be conducted for you in those work areas where you will be exposed.

This information is provided by Assurance Agency https:www.assuranceagency.com