Opinion ID: 453218
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Incorporate the RTECS Hazard List

Text: 76 While the Hazard Communication Standard includes several lists of substances which chemical manufacturers and importers must treat as hazardous, the Standard places primary responsibility for determining which products are hazardous on the chemical manufacturer or importer. 29 C.F.R. Sec. 1910.1200(d)(1) (1984). Petitioner Public Citizen Litigation Group urges that the Secretary should have adopted the RTECS list compiled by NIOSH. The agency found that the hazard determination procedure provided the most protective coverage possible by establishing standards to guide manufacturers in determining whether a substance is hazardous. 48 Fed.Reg. 53299. It rejected use of the RTECS list, finding that it was overinclusive because it encompasses potential as well as identifiable hazards, id. at 53298, and that it was underinclusive because no one list can remain suitably up-to-date, id. at 53296. These findings are supported by the Introduction to the RTECS list in which the editor explains that [t]he absence of a substance from the Registry does not imply that the substance is non-toxic, and thus non-hazardous, any more than the presence of a substance in the Registry indicates that the substance is hazardous in common use. NIOSH, Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) Introduction xi (July 1984). Indeed the editor notes that the RTECS list includes substances that are common in everyday life and in nearly every household. Id. at x. 77 The Public Citizen contends that OSHA's determination that the RTECS list is inappropriate is belied by the Agency's use of that list in its Records Access rule, see Louisiana Chemical Association v. Bingham, 657 F.2d 777, 783 & n. 10 (5th Cir.1981). The Records Access rule, which merely requires that employers make available those records which are kept anyway, imposes a much lighter burden on employers than the Hazard Communication Standard. Because the purposes and requirements of the two rules are not identical, it was reasonable for the Secretary to conclude that the hazard determination procedure for each rule need not be identical. We conclude that the Secretary's rejection of the RTECS list as overinclusive is supported by substantial evidence and is consistent with the OSH Act's statutory purposes.