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Environmental & Risk Management / Hazardous Materials / Objectives

Use Case: Provide Employees with Access to SDSs

Objective

SDSs provide employees with specific information on the products they use. Not only must a manufacturer provide this information, but a recipient of a hazardous substance must review the SDS information and handle the substance accordingly. The SDS must be available to employees in the areas where the material is used and stored.

Solution

In this scenario, the safety and health manager maintains data in the ARCHIBUS SDS application as well as a hard-copy binder in the manager's office with an SDS on every substance on the company's list of hazardous products. The plant manager ensures that each work site maintains SDSs for the hazardous products in each work area, and that each employee has immediate access to SDSs via computer terminal or hard copy. SDSs are also readily available to employees at their work stations. In the SDS application, the Review Material Inventory process provides several different ways to view SDS information as different workers have different information requirements. The following procedures describe access to SDSs for both the safety and health manager and the general employee.

In addition to the options listed below, facility managers can provide employees with access to SDSs through the Hazardous Materials mobile app. With this app, smart phone users can access SDS documents, review the products at each location using lists or a floor plan drawing, and access basic information on each product. Additionally, if their permissions allow, they can edit products and perform material audits directly from their smart phones.

Procedure - General Access

Whether for training or in response to an emergency, an employee should be able to quickly and easily retrieve full details for the SDS, including access to the manufacturer’s original document. While this information is available in several places, the primary tool for this is the Retrieve SDS task. With this task, the employee can search the complete SDS inventory based on whatever information he or she may have.

  1. From the Process Navigator, select the Environmental & Risk Management / Hazardous Materials / Review Material Inventory / Retrieve SDS) task.
  2. In the Filter console, enter search criteria to limit the SDSs shown. Click Show.
  3. You can export the list of SDSs to Excel by clicking the XLS button.
  4. Select an SDS in the SDSs pane.

    The bottom pane shows the Identification tab with information for the selected SDS.

  5. Click on any of the tabs to see that information for the selected SDS.

Procedure - Emergency Response

In an emergency, employees or first responders might need access to SDS information. For example, an employee or an emergency responder might arrive at the scene of an accident or injury involving a material without knowing all the details. Maybe they know the exact room, or have narrowed down the number of rooms from which the material could have come. In this case, they can enter what they know to get a list of possibilities. On the other hand, if they can clearly identify the material on site and have its name, then they might filter directly to that entry.

  1. From the Process Navigator, select the Environmental & Risk Management / Hazardous Materials /Review Material Inventory / Retrieve SDS task.
  2. Enter search criteria for the SDS you are looking for, and click Show. For example, you can search by location, product name of chemical name.
  3. Select the SDS in the SDSs pane.
  4. The bottom pane shows identifying information for the SDS.
  5. Select the Document tab.
  6. Click the Document file name to view the SDS as a PDF.

The bottom pane also includes five tabs of detailed information that provide ready access to the required information simply by clicking on the tab:

Procedure - Safety Planning

In a more typical scenario than the emergent need for information described above, employees would be accessing SDSs in the development stages of some type of integrated safety planning where they are defining procedures and or processes that use hazardous products. Access to the information in the SDS allows the process to be engineered with regard to the specific hazards and requirements of the products involved in the process.

In this case, the following process could be followed:

  1. Access SDS. An engineer would use the Retrieve SDS task to obtain the SDSs for the products of interest.
  2. Review Material Inventory. The engineer would review the data, and include requirements for things such as personal protective equipment, fire protection measures, and evacuation planning.
  3. Print SDS. Often copies of the SDSs are incorporated into the written procedure or safety plan. The engineer could use the Print SDSs task to accomplish this.
  4. Determine if other products are in close proximity. Another possibility in the planing would be that the engineer might need to know what other hazardous products are present where the work is to be accomplished. For example one of the products to be used in the process may indicate that it should not be used in proximity to oxidizing agents. The engineer could review Chemical Constituent Locations to determine if there are potential issues performing the process in the proposed location.

Procedure - Safety and Health Manager Uses SDS Information

The safety and health manager, responsible for acquiring and updating SDSs, might need to contact the product manufacturer or vendor if additional research is necessary, or if an SDS has not been supplied with an initial shipment.

  1. Retrieve contact information. The safety and health can use the Retrieve SDS report to quickly search for an SDS for which he requires more information from the manufacturer. The report will show contact information for the manufacturer.
  2. Alternately, he or she might view the SDS Details by Provider report to retrieve manufacturer contact information.
  3. Creating the master list. Since all new procurements for the company must be cleared by the safety and health manager, this manager is able to keep the master list of SDSs current. A master list of all SDSs can be generated using the Retrieve SDS report and then selecting the XLS button in the SDS pane.
  4. Creating and verifying label information. In addition to maintaining the inventory of hazardous products, the safety and health manager is responsible for ensuring that all hazardous products in the plant are properly labeled and updated, as necessary. This requirement applies especially to cases where products may be used or stored in containers other than the ones provided by manufacturers. For example, if the product is being kept in a large storage tank, small spray bottle, or a piece of equipment, there are minimum labeling requirements, such as the product identity, appropriate hazard warnings, and the name and address of the manufacturer, importer or other responsible party. ARCHIBUS SDS stores this information and it can be used in verifying label information during activities such as a safety walk-around, product inventory review, and shipment inspections when containers are shipped from the plant.
  5. Generating reports.Several other reports included in the Review Material Inventory process may be applicable to tasks performed by the Safety and Health Manager.
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