Where is WHMIS 2016?

It has been one year since the new WHMIS regulations came into effect in Canada. The promise of a new and improved WHMIS based on the Global Harmonized System or GHS had been made for many years so when the new WHMIS regulations were implemented some were surprised that WHMIS was still called WHMIS.

This has created the question as to whether the WHMIS training available is new or old, and whether it includes the GHS revisions. Over the past year people have been asking this question and thanks to the online resourse are becoming aware of how the new GHS revisions were incorporated into the original WHMIS to create the new WHMIS now being called 2015.

This leads to the next question, if there was a 2015, will there be a WHMIS 2016?

There may be revisions to the regulations, especially considering there were a lot of changes. Employers are going to have to understand that the original WHMIS will be known as WHMIS 1988 and the new version known as 2015. SO even though it will be 2017 soon you will be training your employees on 2015.

Considering that WHMIS has been around since 1988 there was a lot invested in the name so the decision to create two versions makes a lot of sense. We will all just have to get our head around that in the years to come when the first thought will be that WHMIS is outdated.

Check out this site which answers this question and others about the new GHS and WHMIS training in Canada