Product
Helpline
HL
In this regular feature, Enhesa will provide extracts of
answers to specific Product questions that we have been
asked, or that have been sent in by you the reader.
Enhesa’s product helpline service can help answer
Safety Data Sheets for goods
shipped from US to EU
We are a US chemical product supplier,
are our material safety data sheets good
to ship our products to the EU?
A material safety data sheet (MSDS), also called in
some parts of the world Chemical safety data sheet
(CSDS) or simply Safety data sheet (SDS) in the EU,
is a document, generally with a regulated format and
content, to convey information on the risk and safety
measures associated with a chemical product. Suppliers of chemicals are usually required to provide a
SDS to the users of chemicals, and sometimes also
to authorities.
In the EU, SDS are regulated by the REACH Regulation
(Regulation 1907/2006 of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and
Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)), which describe in
great detail how the document must be compiled.
However, the fact that the rules on SDS are provided
in REACH, which is a Regulation directly applicable in
all the EU Member States, does not mean that a single
SDS will fit all countries. REACH provides for variations
across countries and requires reviewing the specifics
in each state.
The most obvious variation is the language. The SDS
must be provided in the language(s) of the country. So,
for example, an SDS used in Germany, should be in
German. Attention must be paid to countries where
there are more than one official language. In Belgium
for example, where official languages are Dutch,
Enhesa Flash May/June 2014
French and German, a chemicals supplier will have to
take into consideration the languages understood by
the user. If various users speak different languages, the
supplier will have to provide versions of the SDS in the
official languages.
Further to the language, there are other types of variations, like the Emergency telephone number (required
in Section 1 of a REACH-compliant SDS). SDS need
to display the phone number that a chemical user may
call to obtain advice on emergency measures in case
of an accident involving the chemical. A chemical supplier may choose to indicate the number of the local
antipoison center… where there is one. Indeed not all
EU countries have an antipoison center.
Other examples of variations between SDS for different
EU countries include the occupational exposure limits (OELs, required in Section 8). The OEL for a given
chemical substance generally varies from one country
to another. A SDS must display the OEL applicable in
the country where the chemical is used, not that applicable in another country. REACH-compliant SDS must
also refer to local regulations, for example as regards
the rules for waste disposal (regulating how the chemicals packaging and residues must be disposed of).
Interested in the full response to this question?
Contact [email protected]
Paul Olagnier
Environmental Services Specialsit
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