Safety Data SheetSDS

A Safety Data Sheet is the 16-section document a chemical supplier provides to communicate the hazard of a substance and the controls for handling it. OSHA HazCom 2012 aligned the US with the Globally Harmonized System and adopted the 16-section format: identification, hazard identification, composition, first-aid, fire-fighting, accidental release, handling and storage, exposure controls and PPE, physical and chemical properties, stability and reactivity, toxicological information, ecological information, disposal, transport, regulatory, and other. Each section is in the same place on every sheet, so a responder or a worker can find the first-aid measure or the PPE requirement without reading the sheet front to back.

The SDS is the document a HazCom program is built around: the chemical inventory, the labels, and the training all trace back to the hazard data on the sheet, and OSHA requires an SDS for every hazardous chemical in the workplace, accessible to the worker on the shift they are exposed. The section that drives most controls is section 8 — exposure controls and PPE — which carries the permissible exposure limit and the respirator and glove selection, and section 4 — first-aid measures — is what the clinic reads after an exposure. A QEHS platform holds the SDS against the chemical, the inventory against the SDS, and the exposure against both, so the data sheet is not a filing exercise but the source the controls draw from. See HazCom, GHS, and PPE.