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The Brazilian Association for Technical Standardization (ABNT) currently proposes a revision to the national technical standard on chemical labeling and hazard communications, NBR 14725: “Information on Health, Safety, and Environment – General Aspects of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS), Classification, SDS, and Labeling of Chemical Products”. Brazilian enterprises can submit their comments on the revision before November 19th, 2020, on the ABNT national consultation website [1].
In 2009, ABNT published the domestic GHS standard for the first time, and several revisions and errata have been issued since then. Currently, Brazil’s series of GHS standards consists of 4 documents with overlapping topics: terminology, classification, labelling, and hazard communication. The latest proposed revision will replace the current four-volume series and be the first comprehensive standard, which is with 17 annexes, to regulate the GHS implementation in Brazil.
As a matter of fact, ABNT standards themselves have no legal binding, but they are usually quoted by Brazilian laws or regulations, thus have become mandatory requirements for companies. For NBR 14725, its requirements of labelling and hazards communication are applied on a national scale, especially for the hazardous chemicals used in the workplace. In addition, the standard is also required for other commercial and regulatory purposes now, including in the recent chemical inventory proposal.
According to the proposed revision, once the new standard is finalized, its effective date will initiate a transition period in which enterprises could freely choose to comply with the labelling and hazards communication requirements of the existing or the proposed standards. The current standard will expire in 2 years, which is the deadline for all enterprises to adopt new requirements of labels and SDS.
