Columbia Implements Sixth Edition of GHS

The Columbian Labor Ministry is looking toward mandatory implementation of the sixth edition of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for the classification and labeling of chemicals. It issued a decree to that effect on August 6. The implementation is the result of Columbia’s entry into the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Decree 1496 (Spanish only) regulates the manufacture, import, storage, transport, distribution, marketing, and use of chemical substances and mixtures. The document also defines the responsibilities of each actor in the chemical supply chain.

In the next step, the Ministries of Labor, Agriculture, Transportation, and Health will now set the schedule and transition periods for:

• Chemical products in the workplace
• Agricultural pesticides
• Transport of chemical products
• Consumer chemical products

In November 2017, Columbia announced its plans to implement GHS. It joined OECD at the end of May, which obligated it to implement the GHS regulations. At the beginning of this year, researchers in Sweden and the Netherlands studied the global implementation of GHS standards and uncovered significant gaps.

If you need any support related to GHS guidelines, please contact us at sds@kft.de.