Do You Have the Time, Resources and Expertise               to Author MSDSs? Now you can improve risk management, cost efficiency and control, while increasing productivity Ariel? MSDS Authoring service utilizes Ariel in-house experts to create, manage and maintain globally compliant documents including MSDSs and labels.  Authoring can be performed using your system (e.g, SAP or WERCS) or using 3E?s system. 3E can also provide MSDS distribution to your customers.  Call us to discuss the 3E difference: Fully dedicated, highly qualified multi-lingual authors, not sub-contractors, so that you can talk to the regulatory expert who authored your MSDS World class Ariel Regulatory and Chemical Data?the most up-to-date, comprehensive collection available? used by the leading global chemistry producing companies Click here or call 800.346.6737 to learn more about the difference in         3E Company?s Ariel MSDS Authoring.

Events...........................................................................................................................

Chemical Industry Commits To Safety In Alliance With OSHA
On Nov. 15, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and OSHA signed an alliance to recognize and promote the common safety commitments of ACC's Responsible Care(r) initiative and OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) -- the first time that OSHA has entered into an agreement with an industry-wide performance improvement program.

ACC officials said the alliance identifies joint opportunities to make VPP evaluations and Responsible Care audits more efficient. Responsible Care is ACC's environment, health, safety and security performance improvement initiative. Companies implementing Responsible Care are required to implement a management system and have it certified by independent third-party auditors and report their individual safety performance on a public Web site.

OSHA's VPP promotes effective worksite-based safety and health using an assessment process of companies' safety and health management systems. Approval into VPP is OSHA's official recognition of outstanding efforts in achievement of exemplary occupational safety and health.

In addition, ACC and OSHA will work to protect employees' health and safety by sharing information, providing training and more effectively using resources with each other, ACC members, Responsible Care Partners, health and safety professionals and the public.

Details on the alliance can be accessed at http://www.americanchemistry.com
Additional information on Responsible Care can be found at http://www.responsiblecare-us.com
For information on Voluntary Protection Programs, go to http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/vpp

NIOSH Recommends Titanium Dioxide Nano Exposure Limits
NIOSH is seeking comments by March 31, 2006, on a draft Current Intelligence Bulletin, "Evaluation of Health Hazard and Recommendations for Occupational Exposure to Titanium Dioxide," that contains the agency's assessment of the most current scientific information about the powder, which is used in fine and ultrafine sizes during manufacture of paint, cosmetics, plastics, paper, food, and other products.

NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard said Nov. 23, "We encourage our partners and stakeholders to provide input and feedback before we proceed to a final document. We are also posting a link to the draft document from the NIOSH Web topic page on the occupational safety and health implications and applications of nanotechnology. We hope that the discussion of issues pertaining to ultrafine particles of titanium dioxide at the nanoscale size, that is, particles smaller than 0.1 micrometers in diameter, will also help advance our concurrent dialogue about the science relating to potential occupational health effects of nanomaterials."

The bulletin recommends exposure limits of 1.5 milligrams per cubic meter for fine TiO2 and 0.1 milligrams per cubic meter for ultrafine particles as time-weighted averages for up to 10 hours per day during a 40-hour work week. Exposures should be reduced to levels as low as feasible below those recommended limits, it says, adding that these recommended exposure limits would control occupational exposures to levels unlikely to raise a risk of work-related lung cancer, based on available evidence from laboratory animal studies. NIOSH will hold a public meeting on the document on Feb. 27, 2006; contact Christine Sofge, Ph.D., at (513) 533-8439 for information.

The bulletin is posted at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/preprint/tio2

• Communication;
• Education;
• Employee participation;
• Management leadership;
• How to measure if safety interventions are successful.

Smith, who represented the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) on the committee, pointed to one disappointment with the final product.?This standard doesn?t identify who is to coordinate the management system process,? said Smith. ?Most companies with a management system have an EHS professional who does that.? While the committee debated this issue, Smith said no consensus was reached.?From our point of view,? commented Bill Kojola, an industrial hygienist who represented the AFL-CIO on the committee, ?there is substantial worker involvement woven throughout the entire document ? a critically important element.?

Kojola also thought the fact that the final document was approved without a single dissenting vote was a major accomplishment.?There?s been a very strong anti-regulatory environment ever since the Bush administration took over,? he said. ?It?s really quite remarkable that this document saw the light of day.?

America?s Safest Companies Share a Passion for Safety
At first blush, Occupational Hazards? 12 picks for America's Safest Companies of 2005 have about as much in common as a bag of Doritos and a gallon of Speedway SuperAmerica gasoline. Click here for the full story.