SDS Annual Updates

What is an SDS/MSDS?

Depending on what you reference, SDS/MSDS (Safety Data Sheets / Material Safety Data Sheets) are virtually one and the same. SDS’s are used across any industry whether you’re a supplier, consumer, contractor, distributor, you name it. The focal point of SDS’s is to communicate the health effects, storage risks, emergency procedures, and hazard evaluation for chemical products.

As an employer, it is required that you ensure the contents of your SDS database are up to date and available for access to all employees. Keeping your SDS’s updated is a tedious yet necessary task to ensure the proper protocols are taken when exposure, injury, or disaster occur that my stem from one or more of those chemicals.

An SDS Right-To-Know compliance center

General SDS Guidelines for Employers

There are guidelines that employers must follow to ensure that their employees are protected and well-informed regarding the chemicals or hazardous substances they may be working with. Ultimately, the employer is responsible for their employee’s health while on the job and supplying any information that may benefit them in doing so. The guidelines pertaining to SDS forms are straightforward and include:

  • Employers must maintain an updated SDS for any hazardous chemical that is used or stored within the workplace. Once the chemical is no longer in use or discontinued, the latest SDS for that chemical must be kept for 30 years afterwards.

  • Employers should be regularly checking their chemical suppliers’ SDS’s to ensure that they are the most recent and updated version.

  • Employers shall ensure that SDS’s are readily accessible to all employees throughout their work area(s).

  • SDS’s can be kept electronically but must be backed up with a physical copy or electronically backed up.

Ultimately, keeping up to date with SDS’s provides your employees with the information they need to make safe, appropriate decisions. Nothing is more important than protecting the health of the employee, ensure your company is doing everything they can to maintain this philosophy!

SDS Annual Update Plan

OSHA has strict requirements on SDS updates, storage, and the information pertained in them. The SDS can be found and supplied through the chemical manufacturer, however; according to OSHA, it is the duty of the employer to keep up to date on every SDS and ensure it is the most current version available. On the other hand, the chemical suppliers are required to revise, review, and update their SDS on a periodic basis. When new information regarding the chemical is discovered, changes will be made to the SDS and employers will have to follow suit in providing the most recent SDS published.

Who wants to keep tabs with all of these SDS sheets? All that time spent monitoring any updates for each SDS can feel like it can be utilized better in different aspects. That’s where we come in! We understand your time is the most valuable thing of all and spending it on updating documents and paperwork isn’t the best use of it! ComplyCERT Safety Consulting offers an SDS Annual Update Plan which ensures that we will keep your entire SDS database up to date so you’ll never fall out of compliance. Contact us today via the form below and let us handle the dirty work.