How To Maintain Safety Data Sheets At Your Workplace?

If you are running a business then you might understand that there is never a shortage of things that you should do. Also, it is impossible at times to stay informed about the industry trends and ever-evolving GHS frameworks for labeling the hazardous chemicals at the workplace. However, it is always not what does look! Keeping up to date with the changing frameworks for your workplace can be possible by efficiently deploying strategies across the business and having a clear understanding of the safety data sheets. It helps you as a business owner to make informed decisions when it comes to safety for your employees and businesses. Hence, this blog explains how to maintain safety data sheets at your workplace.

Understanding Safety Data Sheets:

SDS or Safety Data Sheets offers complete information on the properties and characteristics of the chemicals used in the workplace and how it impacts on the safety and health of the employees. These sheets also include information like safety handling, storages and the disposal of the chemical products. Also, based on the information provided in the safety data sheets you categorize and classify the chemicals like how hazardous they are, safety protocols, and many more.

Moreover, it is essential to understand that every jurisdiction has different compliance and regulation. For instance, the US works under OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). So, based on the product and the jurisdiction, the SDS may likely change in respect to manufacturing, supply, and distribution.

Steps To Follow On Maintaining Safety Data Sheets At Workplace

Learning & Assigning:

The foremost step to maintain safety data sheets at a workplace is to familiarize yourself with the OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standards as it will help you to better understand the compliance that is needed for your workplace. Also, after understanding the compliance requirements required for your workplace it is essential to assign the responsibility to those who can help in establishing an effective compliance program for the hazardous chemicals including training within the organization.

Implementation & Preparation:

The next step to maintain safety data sheets is to prepare a complete written plan for the hazardous chemicals as how to address the safety communication at your workplace. Also, prepare a complete inventory list for all the hazardous chemicals present in the workplace with an chemical identifier (CAS#) as it helps you to track the status of SDS compliance. 

Labeling:

Thirdly, it is essential to label the shipping containers with the information like signal word, pictograms, chemical identifier, precautionary statements, hazard statements, and the address, name, and phone number of the responsible parties. Moreover, the containers at the workplace should also include labels like chemical identifiers and the general information regarding the chemicals hazardous. 

Maintenance:

The important part of maintaining the SDS is where these sheets need to be kept? Generally, the ideal place to keep these sheets is the central location of the workplace which can be easily accessed by the employees who are at the potential risk of being exposed to hazardous chemicals. Also, the place should be well-organized as it should be well-located and retrievable. Hence, the ideal way of storing the SDS sheets is electronically as it helps in resolving various issues and making the maintenance easy. Maintain the safety data sheets particularly on specific chemicals at the workplace with detailed information regarding its hazardness.

Training:

In this step, it is essential to train your employees with the hazardness of the chemicals already present at the workplace and the newly added ones, and how to make use of these worksheets effectively. Also, it is essential to inform the employees about compliance requirements, chemical hazards, right preventive measure, implementation of the prevent measure, and point of contact when the issue arises. 

Assessment & Review

Finally, it is important to review the compliance program at specific intervals to ensure that it is up to date and relevant to the company’s standards. Moreover, revise the established compliance program as per the workplace requirements.

Hence, implementation and maintaining an effective compliance program for the hazardous chemicals can be overwhelming often. However, it does not have to be like this when you partner with Sunstream as we offer SDS services to simplify the entire process and we ensure that you stay compliant with the program.