Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) are an important component in health and safety systems. An MSDS can be a paper or electronic document that provides information about the properties of a hazardous material and contains vital information for safe handling and emergency response for each substance. Globally, regulatory agencies require manufacturers of hazardous products to provide MSDSs with initial shipments and provide notice of updates when available. Regulators also require employers to ensure that employees working with hazardous materials have ready access to the MSDSs. In the United States, non-compliance with OSHA regulations may result in fines of tens of thousands of dollars. Hence, implementing an automated system for maintaining and disseminating MSDS information is a wise investment both from a health and safety and a financial perspective.
The ARCHIBUS MSDS application facilitates the process of storing, organizing, and retrieving required MSDSs for hazardous chemicals in use throughout an organization. The advantages of the this application are:
The ARCHIBUS MSDS application stores lists of chemical products used in workplaces and catalogues their MSDS and constituent components. With this application, business process owners can create background facility data such as geographic locations, buildings, floors, and room inventory, as well as MSDS background data such as hazard rankings, constituent chemical IDs, and manufacturer info. Note, however, that if a site is already using ARCHIBUS with their facility data compiled, the MSDS module integrates with those data.
Safety officers or other users may then add or modify MSDS info as they procure products and as manufacturers provide updates.
Any employee or contractor who works with hazardous chemical products may use ARCHIBUS MSDS to review MSDSs pertinent to their work area or responsibilities. Alternately, safety officers can use ARCHIBUS to produce hard copies for binders or other forms of distribution.
Emergency responders may view floor plan graphics with hazardous chemical locations highlighted by hazard rank and drill-in for details as needed.
To provide a practical example of how the MSDS application could be used, several use cases are presented. Follow the links below to each of the use cases for a narrative of the process. Within each use case, you will find links to topics that describe the mechanics of using the forms and reports.
Note that these help topics are not intended to educate you on the regulatory requirements for MSDS. Rather, the information contained here demonstrates how to effectively use the MSDS application in ARCHIBUS and, where appropriate explains why you might perform a task. There are many online resources for learning about MSDS requirements. Here are some links where you can find additional information: