On Nov 21st, the State Administration of Work Safety issued the Specifications on Occupational Disease and Hazard Communication and Warning Signs Management, which will be used as a key reference in occupational health inspection and enforcement.
The Specifications outline the general obligations of employers in accordance with the Law on Prevention and Control of Occupational Disease, Occupational Health Supervision and Management Regulations for the Industrial Workplaces (SAWS Order 47), GBZ 158 Warning Signs for Occupational Hazards in the Workplace and GBZ/T 203. It also provides detailed guidance on how to prepare the supplementary notification letter of occupational diseases and hazards annexed to labor contracts, how to design the notification cards for vulnerable worksites, how to set up eye-catching warning signs and warning specifications in Chinese, etc.
Both the notification letters and cards are based on the hazardous information of relevant chemical substances, however they are distinctive from the proposed GHS precautionary labels for chemicals in the workplace (see CL news) as they don’t display pictograms and the statements only address human safety and health effects and any associated preventative measures and emergency responses.
2015 will be a critical year to achieve the goal set in the National Occupation Disease Prevention Plan (2009~2015) that the percentage of employers complying with the occupational disease and hazard reporting requirements should be 90% or greater.
