Opinion ID: 543586
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: interpretation of the hcs

Text: 9 The Company places considerable weight upon the Secretary's own distinction between mixtures and chemicals in putting forward its claim that the HCS, properly interpreted, does not require the MSDS for Durez 153 to disclose all potential health risks associated with phenol. Mixtures are chemicals composed of constituents that have not reacted chemically with each other; mixtures are for that reason presumed to retain the hazardous properties of their constituents. Id. Sec. 1200(c), (d)(5)(ii). Because phenol reacts and bonds with formaldehyde, leaving only small amounts of phenol residue that have failed to react with the formaldehyde, Durez asserts that Durez 153 is a chemical rather than a mixture. Under the HCS, Durez contends, the presence in a chemical of a residuum of hazardous material does not require a health hazard warning if a reliable study has shown--as Durez claims here to be the case--that employees at downstream worksites will not be exposed to concentrations above the permissible exposure limits (PEL) for that ingredient in the conditions under which that chemical will foreseeably be used. In our view, however, this court's decision in General Carbon and the deference due the agency's reasonable interpretation of the HCS compel us to reject the claim that forms the core of the petitioner's argument. 10 First. In General Carbon we upheld a Commission order requiring a manufacturer to affix to containers of electrical brushes, which are mixtures, labels identifying the constituent chemicals and warning of all associated health risks. The brushes, made primarily of copper and graphite--both of which are hazardous chemicals for purposes of the HCS--emit small quantities of copper and graphite dust when they are handled by the employees of a downstream employer. This court considered and rejected the claim that the labeling requirements of the HCS, id. Sec. 1910.1200(f)(1), do not apply where the foreseeable conditions under which such employees would handle the brushes would not expose them to concentrations in excess of the PELs for copper and graphite. 11 The court based its rejection of this argument upon the Preamble to the HCS, which provides that 12 The hazard potential does not change even though the risk of experiencing health effects does vary with the degree of exposure.... The chemical manufacturer ... in making hazard determinations, should evaluate and communicate all the potential hazards associated with a chemical, whereas the [down-stream] employer may supplement this information by instructing employees on the specific nature and degree of hazard they are likely to encounter in their particular exposure situations. 13 48 Fed.Reg. 53,296 (1983). The import of this passage is clear: the likelihood, at a given level of exposure, of incurring any potential harm associated with a chemical ingredient is to be weighed and communicated by the downstream employer, rather than by the manufacturer of the chemical. The reason is equally obvious: the manufacturer of the chemical is less well positioned to foresee the full range of uses to which its product may be put and the full range of exposure levels to which downstream employees may be subjected. While General Carbon addressed the scope of the labeling requirement rather than that of the disclosures required in a MSDS, our deference to the agency's judgment that a downstream employer is better able than the manufacturer of a chemical to adjust health warnings to the needs of its own workplace applies equally in the present context. Indeed, we reached our conclusion about the scope of the labeling requirement in part by reference to the scope of the disclosure required for a MSDS. General Carbon, 860 F.2d at 484-85. 14 Moreover, as we noted in General Carbon, the MSDS is intended to set forth more detailed information than are the labels. Id. at 485. Therefore, having interpreted the HCS to require container labels to list all potential health risks associated with hazardous constituents, regardless of expected exposure levels, it would be anomalous for us now to hold that the disclosures required on the corresponding MSDS need not cover health risks that the manufacturer concludes will not materialize at projected levels of exposure, and we decline to do so. 15 Second. Quite apart from the force of General Carbon as precedent, we are obliged to defer to the Secretary's interpretation of her own regulation, if it is reasonable. GAF Corp. v. OSHRC, 561 F.2d 913, 915 (D.C.Cir.1977). Here, the Secretary reasonably found that the rationale for allowing a downstream employer to determine the actual risks posed by a hazardous chemical, in light of the uses to which the chemical will be put, applies equally to mixtures and to chemicals; and that the presence in a chemical of a hazardous residue that retains its chemical identity implicates the same policy considerations as the presence in a mixture of hazardous constituent materials. The Commission agreed, noting that Durez 153 resembles a mixture in that residual phenol retains its chemical identity as it is released; and the Secretary, in her brief, adds the observation that the hazards of phenol due to exposure to Durez 153 in the workplace are in no way diminished simply because phenol emissions represent unreacted raw material. Accordingly, recognizing that hazardous residue in pure form is no less dangerous when contained in a chemical than when contained in a mixture, the Secretary would interpret the HCS as attributing to the compound the hazardous properties of its unreacted ingredients. We find nothing in the petitioner's argument to cast doubt upon the reasonableness of this interpretation. 16 We pause only to notice, for we need not today address, another potential anomaly. The HCS provides that [i]f a mixture has not been tested as a whole to determine whether the mixture is a health hazard, the mixture shall be assumed to present the same health hazards as do the components which comprise one percent (by weight or volume) or greater of the mixture. 29 C.F.R. Sec. 1910.1200(d)(5)(ii). Because the Standard provides no such threshold for chemicals other than mixtures, however, it appears that the manufacturer of a chemical that is the product of a reaction is required to disclose all potential health hazards posed by hazardous raw materials that retain their chemical identity in the reaction product, regardless of how small a percentage of that product the raw material may be. The reason for such seemingly disparate treatment is not apparent, but we are not called upon to evaluate its reasonableness today, because in fact phenol comprises more than 1 percent of Durez 153.