WHMIS training and education keeps workers safe

Every workplace depends on chemical products to make tasks possible, faster or easier. In fact, a typical workplace use about 100 chemical products. About 70% of these products have WHMIS hazards that can affect the health and safety of employees.

That's why it's so important for workers to understand the hazards of the products they use and how to protect themselves. Even something as seemingly simple as hand soap can have a WHMIS hazard of "May cause cancer"! 

Canada’s Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) is designed to protect worker health and safety and to reduce the prevalence of occupational disease. WHMIS legislation sets out employer responsibilities, including for education and training, when a hazardous product is used in the workplace.

According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), employers are required to:

1. Educate and train workers on the hazards and safe use of products.
2. Ensure that hazardous products are properly labelled.
3. Prepare workplace labels, as needed.
4. Prepare Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), as necessary (e.g., if an employer manufactures a hazardous product that is used on-site).
5. Provide access to up-to-date SDSs to workers.
6. Ensure appropriate control measures are in place to protect the health and safety of workers.

In this article, we’ll discuss the WHMIS requirement to educate and train workers on the hazards and safe use of chemical products.

The difference between WHMIS “education” and “training”

The CCOHS states that WHMIS education and training are two separate requirements:

“Education refers to general or portable information such as how WHMIS works and the hazards of the products. For example, you will learn about the hazard classes (e.g., why a product is called a corrosive, and what information you can find on labels and SDSs).

Training refers to the site- and job-specific information to employees that will cover your workplace's procedures for storage, handling, use, disposal, emergencies, spills, and what to do in unusual situations.”

General WHMIS education applies to all workplaces; however, each workplace is different, and the potential exposure to hazardous products will vary. Employers must make sure that workers also receive WHMIS training that is specific to the hazards in your workplace, and to the work that your employees will be performing.

WHMIS education is general in nature

Online WHMIS courses typically address the WHMIS educational requirement. They provide employees with the following information:

• An explanation of how the WHMIS system works, e.g., that hazardous products are grouped into classes and categories.
• A review of a limited number of hazards – e.g., “Simple asphyxiants are gases that displace air.”
• Clarification of roles and responsibilities – e.g., “Employers are responsible for ensuring workers understand the hazards of the products they work with.”

This is useful general information but does not provide the workplace or chemical-specific information that is also required by WHMIS.

Many organizations and WHMIS education sessions focus primarily on how WHMIS works and the process of classifying hazards.

While information about classifying hazards is critical to chemical product suppliers in preparing an SDS, it is of little practical use to employers and workers and their day-to-day experiences handling chemical products.

Instead, employers and workers need to thoroughly understand the description of the hazards on the product labels.

Understanding the hazards is the first step in preventing workplace injury and illness.

WHMIS training is specific to the hazards found in your workplace

SDS RiskAssist has documented insights from more than 3800 workplaces and hundreds of interviews with end-users, supervisors, managers, suppliers and regulatory officials to understand the challenges organizations face.

Our research reveals that workers are seldom provided with chemical-specific training that identifies site-specific work and emergency procedures.

This is contrary to the WHMIS requirement that employers ensure employees receive site- and job-specific training for each chemical product in your workplace to understand the procedures in place for safe storage, handling, use, disposal, emergencies, spills, and other unusual situations.

To safely handle chemical products, workers should be able to answer these four questions for every hazardous product they work with:

1. What are the hazards of the product?
2. How do I protect myself from those hazards?
3. What do I do in case of an emergency?
4. Where can I get further information?

See more information from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development about employers’ responsibilities to educate workers who work with, or may be exposed to, a hazardous product.

When is WHMIS training required?

All workplaces in Canada that use hazardous products are required by law to provide WHMIS education and training to all workers who:

• May be exposed to a hazardous product due to their work activities (including normal use, maintenance activities, or emergencies).
• Use, store, handle or dispose of a hazardous product.
• Supervise or manage workers who may be exposed, or use, store, handle or dispose of a hazardous product.
• Are involved in emergency response.

Plus, refresher WHMIS education and training is generally required in the following circumstances:

• As needed to protect the worker's health and safety.
• If conditions of the workplace have changed.
• If new products are introduced.
• If the products have changed and now have different hazards.
• When new hazard information becomes available.
• If there is new information about safe use, handling, storage or disposal.

Visit the CCOHS website to learn more about WHMIS education and training requirements.

Effective WHMIS training with SDS RiskAssist

SDS RiskAssist takes a two-pronged approach to help employers address WHMIS’s site- and job-specific training requirement in an effective and expeditious manner.

Our Hazard Micro-Training Module focuses on the most common hazards in your workplace, which we determine using SDS RiskAssist chemical safety software. For example, eye hazards are the most common chemical hazard found in Canadian workplaces. There are 3 different hazard statements. Information on these hazards is as follows:

This allows WHMIS training to focus on the most commonly found hazards in a given workplace. This training could differ between locations for the same employer.

SDS RiskAssist SafetySnaps: chemical-specific WHMIS training, anywhere, anytime

SDS RiskAssist SafetySnaps are clear, concise summaries of all your SDSs with easy-to-understand instructions and PPE requirements at a glance.

No longer are workers required to spend hours reading SDSs and trying remember an impossible amount of information to stay safe on the job. SafetySnaps make all the essential information easily accessible 24/7 on a smartphone so employees have all the info they need at a glance – WHMIS training on the go – to reduce the risk of incidents that can affect their health and safety and result in lost time, delays and major fines.

Also see our Guide to WHMIS Symbols and Meanings.

Post updated March 27, 2024