What is a safety data sheet?
A safety data sheet is the manufacturer's document describing a chemical's hazards, handling, storage and first aid. It is an input to a COSHH assessment, not the assessment itself.
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<img src="https://cleanoptix.co.uk/glossary/safety-data-sheet/diagram.svg" alt="safety data sheet — diagram from CleanOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://cleanoptix.co.uk/glossary/safety-data-sheet">What is a safety data sheet?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://cleanoptix.co.uk">CleanOptix</a>
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</figure>It describes the product in general; a COSHH assessment describes this use of it — the dilution, the method, the ventilation, the equipment worn and what happens if it is spilled.
Sheets are updated when formulations or classifications change, so the version held needs to match the product actually in use rather than the one bought three years ago.
They also state incompatibilities, which is the section that would prevent the mixing incidents that cause the most serious harm in this industry.
In practice
An assessment written four years ago for a product since reformulated.
The product name on the bottle is the same. The hazards on the current sheet are not the ones the assessment was written against.
Recording the version and date of the sheet an assessment was built on is what makes a reformulation visible. Without it the assessment ages invisibly and looks current forever.
It is one field, and almost no register has it.
What goes wrong in practice
- Sheets filed as though they were assessments.
- Superseded versions held for products that have been reformulated.
- Incompatibility information never communicated to the people using the products.