Notice Board

SAFETY BULLETIN

Changes to WHMIS Legislation – WHMIS 2015

Amendments to the federal Hazardous Products Act and the new Hazardous Products Regulations came into effect February 11, 2015 under the authority of Health Canada. These changes integrate Workplace Hazardous Materials Information Systems (WHMIS) with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) (WHMIS 2015).

To ensure consistency of WHMIS across Canada, provincial and territorial jurisdictions responsible for occupational health and safety legislation will be implementing the necessary changes to their respective legislation as soon as possible. Alberta is in the process of amending Part 29 of the OHS Code to be consistent with the federal legislation. A three year transition period is in effect where both WHMIS 1988 and WHMIS 2015 systems may be used.

There have been significant changes to the federal WHMIS legislation:

• “Controlled Products” will be called “Hazardous Products”

• Different hazard classes and more of them

• Different classification criteria

• New supplier labels

• New pictograms

• New 16-section product safety data sheets (SDSs)

• No requirement to update SDSs every three years

Risk and Safety Services (RSS) has taken a proactive approach for integration of GHS and current WHMIS training available through RSS has included an introduction to the new system for the past two years.

RSS will continue to provide information and updates on the integration of WHMIS and GHS at the University of Lethbridge. Please refer to the following for information on WHMIS 2015:

RSS webpage: http://www.uleth.ca/risk-and-safety-services/content/chemical-safety

WHMIS Portal: http://whmis.org/

Work Safe Alberta: http://work.alberta.ca/documents/OHS-Bulletin-CH009.pdf