HazCom: The Nine Pictograms and Your Duties

What each symbol means, what a compliant label and safety data sheet must carry, and how long the paperwork has to survive.

The pictograms

Flame	Flammables. Solvent adhesives, propane.
Flame over circle	Oxidizers. Some curing accelerants and cleaning agents.
Exploding bomb	Explosives, self-reactives, organic peroxides.
Gas cylinder	Compressed or liquefied gas. Oxy-acetylene sets.
Corrosion	Skin and eye burns, or corrosive to metal. Masonry acid cleaners.
Skull and crossbones	Acute toxicity. Can be fatal.
Exclamation mark	Irritant, skin sensitizer, milder acute toxicity. Some caulks and bleaches.
Health hazard	Carcinogen, respiratory sensitizer, reproductive toxicity. Silica-bearing products, some epoxy hardeners.
Environment	Aquatic toxicity. NOT OSHA-enforced: environmental hazards are the EPA's remit.

Labels

A shipped label must carry	Product identifier, signal word, hazard statements, pictograms, precautionary statements, and supplier name, address and phone
Pictogram border	Red diamond on a shipped container
Workplace labels	May use an alternative system, so a black border or no pictogram can still be compliant in-house
The common failure	Decanting into an unlabeled container. That is the citation most sites actually get.

Safety data sheets

16 sections, fixed order	Sections 1 to 11 and 16 are the ones OSHA enforces
Sections 12 to 15	Ecological, disposal, transport, regulatory. Present on the sheet, but other agencies regulate them, so OSHA does not enforce them.
Accessible	Available to employees on every shift, without asking permission

Training and records

Training when	At initial assignment, and whenever a NEW HAZARD is introduced. A new product with a hazard already covered does not trigger it; a new hazard does.
Retention	SDSs count as employee exposure records under 29 CFR 1910.1020 and must be kept 30 YEARS, or a substitute record of chemical identity, where it was used and when
Construction	29 CFR 1926.59 states its requirements are identical to 1910.1200. Your standard is not different.

HazCom is a federal OSHA standard, so unlike the model building codes there is no adoption gap to check. State-plan states can impose additional requirements on top of the federal baseline. The 30-year retention applies to the exposure record, not to every version of every sheet, but keeping the sheets is the simplest way to satisfy it.

Sources: osha.gov

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