Last month, I promised that I would comply with the Editor’s plan to cover “basics” in this calendar year. But I am going to interrupt that worthwhile endeavor to cover an ongoing process that is sure to affect you.

LET’S GET GLOBALLY HARMONIZED
Tom Friedman is right about the world being flat; commerce and cultures from anywhere are able to co-mingle with each other without barriers. In critical cleaning at least, that’s not all for the good. For example, different information about SHE (safety, health, environmental) hazards from global sources has collided, not meshed. That’s because each country or region has its own history, commerce, and culture.

Founded in 1992, but largely dormant until about 2005, the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) is complex, backed by the U.N., and organized to do what its name implies.

And it’s legal. The GHS supersedes the relevant European Union and United States standards. The European Union has implemented the United Nations’ GHS into EU law as the CLP Regulation.