Employees must be warned of chemical hazards: OSHA.

Industrial chemical users, including furnituremakers, have until May 25, 1986 to implement employee-training programs dealing with the safe handling of potentially hazardous chemical products, according to a new federal standard that took effect this month.

While the new standard affects all manufacturers in the wood products industry, the greatest regulatory impact is being felt by companies that make or distribute chemicals.

Adopted two years ago by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Hazard Communication Standard aims to curtail the incidence of chemically related occupational illnesses and injuries in the nation's manufacturing sector.

As of Nov. 25, chemical sellers were to begin providing material safety data sheets to their purchasers evaluating "known" potentially hazardous properties of each product's contents. The second phase of the communication's standard goes into effect May 25, 1986. At that time, all end users of hazardous chemical products are to have developed and initiated employee safety training programs and have written copies of those programs on file.

"For a Lot of companies with well-established safety programs, this is just another chapter in the book," said Richard Margosian, general manager of the National Particleboard Assn., which opposes the new OSHA rule. "For those that don't, it will be like writing a whole new book."