Preparation Of Safety Data Sheets
Legally compliant preparation and tracking of safety data sheets
A safety data sheet (SDS) provides all information that users need in order to handle chemicals professionally. This includes detailed information on the composition of the product, on possible hazards and on safe handling, storage and transport.
Who needs to prepare an SDS?
- Manufacturers, importers or retailers (suppliers of a product) must provide safety data sheets free of charge and without special request on paper or electronically no later than the date on which the product is first supplied.
- While retailers do not need to display safety data sheets, a professional user may, in principle, request a safety data sheet as a customer in a building supplies store, a chemist's or other shops. The retailer is then obliged to make this available to him.
- Pure users of chemicals do not have to prepare safety data sheets themselves. However, a company-level user must check whether a safety data sheet is prescribed for a chemical and whether one exists in his/her own company.
When does an SDS need to be prepared for a product?
Under Article 31 of the REACH Regulation, the supplier of a substance or a mixture must provide the recipient with a safety data sheet if
- the substance meets the criteria for classification as dangerous in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 or the mixture meets the criteria for classification as dangerous in accordance with Directive 1999/45/EC or
- the substance is persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) or very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) in accordance with the criteria set out in Annex XIII or
- the substance has been included in the candidate list (in accordance with Article 59).
A user may also request a safety data sheet where a mixture does not meet the criteria for classification as dangerous, but
- contains, in a defined concentration below the classification limit, at least one substance posing human health or environmental hazards, a PBT or vPvB substance or a substance that has been included in the candidate list (in accordance with Article 59), or
- a substance for which there are Community workplace exposure limits.
What requirements on safety data sheets must be complied with?
Requirements on safety data sheets are defined by Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH), particularly by Article 31 in conjunction with Annex II.
Safety data sheets must be updated in accordance with the REACH Regulation if, for example, there have been changes to classification and identification, evidence of hazards in terms of carcinogenicity, mutagenicity or toxicity for reproduction exists or new limit value classifications are made.
The safety data sheet must be supplied to the recipient in an official language of the relevant country in which the substance or mixture is placed on the market, unless the Member State concerned provides otherwise.
The supplier of a product is responsible for ensuring that the safety data sheet is technically correct and complete. It is important that this document should be regularly brought into line with the latest developments in knowledge.
Safety data sheets must be prepared by experts.
Our interdisciplinary team will be pleased to prepare safety data sheets for your products and update your existing safety data sheets.
We prepare our safety data sheets on the basis of the REACH Regulation, being guided by "Guidance on the Preparation of Safety Data Sheets", issued by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), and by Notification 220, "Safety Data Sheet", issued by the Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), which provides assistance with preparation of sections of the data sheet in which national specifications and insights must be taken into account or to which the guidance provided by ECHA does not refer.
Further information on requirements and prerequisites as well as on extended data sheets is available here.
