Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : November/December 2004

Focus on Material Safety Data Sheets—OHS™ (File 332) Consistent MSDS Provide Advantages

Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are fundamental sources of information about chemicals. They provide the information on physical and chemical characteristics, hazards, exposure controls, and regulatory requirements, which enable us to use chemicals safely every day. The best MSDS provide comprehensive, up-to-date, reliable information in an easy-to-use format. However, all MSDS are not created equally.

The quality of an MSDS is dependent on the training, support, technical references and other resources available to the MSDS author. Proprietary MSDS can be produced under a wide variety of conditions by authors working from many different perspectives. The level of training and support the authors receive and the resources available to them can vary substantially from company to company. Another important consideration is the authoring system itself. Companies that produce only small numbers of MSDS may not have a formal authoring system. As a result, there can be substantial variations in the information provided and the way it is presented. One of the guiding forces behind the development of MSDS was recognition of the need to standardize the delivery of important chemical information for the user. This standardization is an important goal that has not yet been fully realized across the industry.

File 332, however, contains standardized MSDS, produced by OHS, a business of MDL Information Systems, Inc. These standardized MSDS are:

• Presented in an internationally recognized ANSI sixteen-section format. These are comprehensive MSDS that include expanded data such as Department of Transportation (DOT) shipping designations, extensive physical properties, U.S. regulatory information and European Safety Data.
  
  
• Created by full-time, specially trained scientific data analysts, who write, format, translate, analyze, and assess the data using an extensive reference library compiled specifically for this purpose and guided by a well-defined set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that assure the consistent interpretation and presentation of relevant information. These SOPs are available to the authors online to encourage their frequent use during the authoring process.
  
  
• Subject to a multilevel quality assurance program before they are released.
  
  
• Stored as data rather than text. If there is a change in an OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit, for example, it is not necessary to search through the entire collection of MSDS and change each individual one. It is only necessary to make a single change in an OSHA Exposure Limit Table, which then updates the value in all MSDS where it occurs. This characteristic of the OHS MSDS system means that updates can be made more quickly and more often.
  
  
• Easily comparable making access to key information between different chemicals much easier. Standard phrases are used whenever possible to ensure that similar information is conveyed consistently across many different MSDS.
  
  
• Produced in many different languages. Translations of the standard phrases are maintained in twelve key languages. The use of translated standard phrases results in consistency in both format and data between U.S. and international MSDS.
  
  
• Easily managed. Few companies today work with only one or two MSDS. Many companies work with hundreds or even thousands of MSDS spread across multiple departments and locations. There are often many different users. Standardized MSDS simplify training and lend themselves much more readily to electronic storage, retrieval and use.

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