PART TWO: THE RED SQUARE The Red square, at the top of the NFPA diamond, tells the reader how flammable the labeled substance is. As I mentioned in Part One, a rating of “0” indicates the lowest level of flammability, while a rating of “4” indicates the highest level of flammability. The ratings in this…… Continue reading How to Read an NFPA 704 Diamond-Part 2
In One Easy Lesson (In Four Parts) The NFPA Diamond rating system was developed to enable first responders to a fire or similar emergency to see at a glance what hazards they might encounter while performing their duties. It didn’t take long for employers and chemical workers to realize that the Diamond was a useful…… Continue reading How to Read an NFPA 704 Diamond
When I first started working for HCL Labels, in January of 1980, it was part of a larger company called Safety Specialists, Inc. There were two of us working at HCL, and I was second in command. We had our office on the second floor of a frontier-style, wooden building in Boulder Creek, California. There…… Continue reading A Personal History of HCL
Now that you understand what the cute little pictorials on the new GHS labels mean, you may be wondering when you need to use a GHS label. The answer is pretty simple – you need a GHS label whenever you have a secondary container of a chemical or chemical mixture. For instance, if you or…… Continue reading So When Do I Need a GHS Label?
What Do Those Other Little Weird Pictures Mean? This is one of the less obvious pictogram symbols. It looks as if it might just be calling your attention to a hazard. And in a way that’s true. This symbol is saying, “This substance is harmful, but not life-threatening.” It is used with statements like…… Continue reading GHS, Schmee-H-S…Part 3
If you haven’t read Part 1, then go back and check it out before continuing with this post! What Do Those Little Weird Pictograms Mean? We’ll start with this one. This one is fairly obvious – it means the labeled substance is flammable. It can be a flammable gas or aerosol, or a flammable…… Continue reading GHS, Schmee-H-S…Part 2
Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New Labels So the deadline has passed and those new labels with the weird little pictures are all over the place. What’s the point? Good question! First of all, it may help to know that “GHS” stands for “Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of…… Continue reading GHS, Schmee-H-S
This month, November, marks the 30th anniversary of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)’s longest running public awareness campaign. Entitled “Tie One On For Safety”, the campaign utilizes bright red ribbons as a visible reminder to us all travel safely during this holiday season. Not surprisingly, the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day are some…… Continue reading Tie One On For Safety
A lot has happened behind the scenes at HCL recently… We moved! We had been in the process of moving to a new location for a while and now we are finally settled in and producing more than ever before. HCL has grown, and to accommodate this growth, a move was necessary. Our new facility…… Continue reading HCL has moved!
Did you know we offer a variety of custom OSHA/GHS chemical labels? If you cannot find the chemical label you are looking for on our website, we can make it for you! It’s a simple process that many of our customers regularly use for their uncommon chemicals and chemical mixtures. For a small fee, we…… Continue reading Custom OSHA/GHS Labels?.. We can do it!
