Hello-I’m Jill, Chief Safety Officer with HSI Learning Systems. Employers often ask exactly when employee have to receive Hazard Communication Training. The answer is before they have exposure to a hazardous substance.

For example, let’s say you’ve just hired 5 new employees and you need them to start working immediately and those employees will be working with or have exposure to one or more hazardous substance. If that is your situation, then employees must receive their hazard communication training before their first exposure, you cannot wait until the end of the work week to provide the training.

Additionally, re-training needs to occur whenever a new physical or health hazard is introduced to the workplace to which your employees have exposure. If your employees suddenly have exposure to a carcinogen, yet did not have that exposure yesterday or last week, it’s time to provide additional training or to update your training to include the new exposure.

I hoped this helped clarify one aspect of Hazard Communication Compliance.

Learn more about hazard identification.