The Integrated Chemists of the Philippines held its second in the series of GHS Awareness activities by conducting the Advanced GHS Training last November 27-29, 2012, at the Makati Palace Hotel in Makati City.
This advanced training for the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) was intended for all of those who are involved in chemical safety in the laboratory both academe and industry, research , production, transport and public health. The participants included those who completed the Basic GHS Training or had attended seminar on GHS Overview.
The objectives of the Advanced GHS Training were: to familiarize participants with the GHS criteria for classifying physical, health and environmental hazards; to learn the elements of hazard communication; and to practice application of hazard criteria to sample chemicals and to determine which GHS hazard communication elements apply.
The course was divided into four parts. Part 1 was the Introduction to Hazard Classification and Hazard Communication where the steps and guidelines on how to classify and communicate the hazards were discussed. Part 2 was about Physical Hazard Criteria, where the 16 classes of physical hazards were defined and characterized and the criteria for determining the categories, i.e., the severity, of each hazard class are discussed. At the end of the presentation participants were divided into 7 groups and given set of exercises to answer. Each group presented the process of how they arrived at the answers. Part 3 presented Health Hazard Criteria where the basis for classifying the ten (10) health hazard classes and their categories were explained. Similar to Part 1, a set of exercises were also provided where each group was asked to answer and present their reasons for their classification. Part 4 covered Environmental Hazard Criteria, where the basis for classifying the class of hazard and the categories were discussed. At the end of this presentation, a workshop was conducted to solve a set of exercises which was given to each group. Presentors from each group were asked to discuss and explain their answers.
The three-day training was concluded with the awarding certificates to the participations by the trainers, Ms. Tessie B. Corpuz and Ms. Marila Palisoc.