When working with chemicals, it’s extremely important to convey the dangers and warnings of the substance. Chemical labeling is especially complex because of this and requires many more standards than other labels.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) that is meant to take any mystery out of the proper use and hazards around chemicals used, especially in the workplace. Workers and companies have a right to know the best practices of handling dangerous materials in order to prevent unnecessary accidents, but on the rare occasion that an accident does take place involving these materials, there are organizations like Coast2Coast First Aid and Aquatics who provide accessible training in first aid and CPR. Without effective training, accidents can result in loss of workforce, and time and money down the drain for an employer.

Chemical Labeling and the Hazard Communication Standard

The HCS has recently been updated to provide better access to valuable information about potentially threatening products. To avoid chemical mishaps in a workplace environment, all pertinent information about any threats a product may carry need to be on hand and available to the workers. As an example, phs Direct are the UK’s leading supplier of bulk industrial cleaning chemicals, help keeping your organisations workplace up to vigorous hygiene standards. However, some of the products that they’d offer for sale may indeed have to be labeled correctly should there be any hazardous chemicals involved, and the employees that could then be using the various chemical cleaners, therefore, need proper training and knowledge before doing so.

It requires communication to be made and available about the level of hazard a product carries. Additionally, all workers need to be trained in how to use the products to reduce the risk of accidents and mishaps. Depending on your business, it might be easier to call in professionals to carry out tasks that need to use hazardous chemicals, like this drain cleaning company (more info), because they will already have the training needed to carry out the task safely. However, this is not always possible so you and your staff should at least be familiar with the potential dangers of using chemicals.

How Does This Affect Chemical Labeling?

Chemical labeling must have clear, concise, and precise information about the various dangers it carries right on the label. This might pose a challenge to someone working with a smaller label, so abbreviations and pictures are available to help get the message across in a smaller space. Blue Ribbon Label has years of experience in providing high-quality chemical labeling and understands the unique needs of this industry.

While labels that are attached to a chemical product have all these considerations to keep in mind, it’s still important to think about appealing to your customer and to get your product noticed on the shelf. Some additional things to think about are:

• What kind of product are you offering? Is it cheap? Or is it high end and offers precise and detailed outcomes? For either one, think about the kind of color and images that would convey the idea you want your customer to get with just a glance at your product.
• What job does your product do? Customers want to know that they are buying a product that will make their lives easier. Brag about what your product will get done on the label! For example, if your product is a drain cleaner – tell potential consumers right on the label how good of a job it will do at drain cleaning in a couple of clear words.

It’s important to have all of these concepts come together on your label so that you are covered by safety standards and also get your product to be the number one choice on the shelves. Blue Ribbon’s customer service team can help you with more creative chemical labeling ideas to truly make your product stand out as one of a kind.