Australia's Science Forum

I'm trying to get our chemicals added to Chemwatch which is an ongoing pain in the neck! While I'm now used to the format & how to add things etc, it's still driving me mad!!

What do you do when you can't find the correct supplier for the chemical you have when finding MSDS. In this case it's Hydrochloric acid 32% supplied by Chem-Supply. While there are several different Hydrochloric Acids listed with Chem-Supply none are 32%. The only one with that is a different supplier. Do I just use the one from the different supplier or go with the Gold MSDS.

When we first started we were told that if the supplier is not their, mind you we had Government stores which no longer is around. We could pick any one. That was way back in 1999.

Chem-supply have an excellent website which has all their SDSs available to download. You should use the manufacturer's safety data sheet if it is available.

Like Merilyn said go straight to the Chemsupply website and download the SDS. Their website is very easy to use.

If the name Scharlau came up for the safety data sheet for 32% hydrochloric acid instead of a Chem Supply named safety data sheet then that will be okay to use. Chem Supply distributes the Scharlau brand.

I've found this with a couple of SDSs this year. Yes, definitely use them, but make a note on the front page that this is what was supplied by Chemsupply.

Hmm.... go back in today and there it is!!! Maybe I missed it yesterday.

Thanks for all your comments - I was going to print off whatever one was closest & then write on the front. But if we have to include the supplier on the labels we print for say 1M HCL - then how does that work if the supplier is different? Or is that not necessary?

If you are purchasing conc HCl and then diluting it to 1M, you would not need to include the supplier. There are guidelines for labelling, and although not overly specific, I don't believe you would need to include the supplier's information on a small label anyway, although Chemwatch thinks differently. You can create your own labels in Chemwatch with the information you think should be on there. You need to go in to D Gen label maker, there is a tutorial on the website which should help. I'd advise you to check with your WHS people for advice.

Wayne wrote:Like Merilyn said go straight to the Chemsupply website and download the SDS. Their website is very easy to use.

I tried to get SDSs for Ajax Chemicals - now Thermofisher. It said on their website if you couldn't find the SDS to email the company. You needed the product code to find the SDS which was impossible as we had old chemicals with old labels. So I emailed them a list of about a dozen chemicals. The response! It was written in large font, in capitals - a real "shouty" one. They said I was expecting a lot and the "help" they gave me was useless as it still relied on the product number. I still haven't decided if I should forward it onto Workcover. I'm sure they'd be interested.
Yes, Chem-supply do it so well.

Yes, Ajax SDS's are not as easy. Even if your bottles had the product code there was no guarantee it was still current. In the end I found the easiest way was to download their catalogue and look up the product codes from there.

I went with the solution of using Chemsupply SDSs and making a note on them that I could not obtain the Ajax one. I could say that I could look up the product code next year - but I won't be here 32 working day to go...

Im doing some casual work for the term at a school to find that the last labbie who has retired has not logged a manifest in chemwatch

trying to log into chemwatch for 1 label, which should take 5 mins....but i can't log in, its like the site is dead.
Can someone else see if they can log in please!!!

Thank you

LabMad wrote:Im doing some casual work for the term at a school to find that the last labbie who has retired has not logged a manifest in chemwatch

I haven't either. I have a comprehensive excel spreadsheet, with SDS dates and filed on the shelf. Dont' be too hard on the retired labbie

Not meaning to be hard but now to update all the msds I have to search and print instead of print dump. i dont think they knew how to safe the chemicals in the manifest.
Starting the process and now chemwatch isn't working

yes CHEMWATCH is down - such a pain. I am packing away a chem prac with 0.5M chems I need labels for for the left overs.
Thought it was just my log in. Wonder how long it will be down for?????

Merilyn1 wrote:If you are purchasing conc HCl and then diluting it to 1M, you would not need to include the supplier. There are guidelines for labelling, and although not overly specific, I don't believe you would need to include the supplier's information on a small label anyway, although Chemwatch thinks differently. You can create your own labels in Chemwatch with the information you think should be on there. You need to go in to D Gen label maker, there is a tutorial on the website which should help. I'd advise you to check with your WHS people for advice.

Thanks. I'm at a NSW DoE school. I wasn't sure about the supplier bit, but it's easily removed from the label template I had started to use so that's all good.

Hi guys,

I'm in the process of updating our chemical register too; does anyone know whether the Chemwatch manifest list is acceptable/compliant as a stand-alone chemical register? Our previous lab assistant had an additional excel spreadsheet too; just seems to be duplicating unnecessarily?
I noticed that there is no column on Chemwatch to list current SDS dates.....

Thanks!

All I can say is our Audit was very happy with the print out from Chemwatch. We also have a print out on excel, as the teachers like that one better, so they can look up when I am not around to see if we have that chemical etc and how much.

Despite the excitement of realizing I don't have to do anymore labelling (According to Alan Smith ) ,I discovered today that the labels I had already put on all the Hydrochloric acid containers has the wrong GHS symbols on it . A Scull and cross bones and a Corrosive .
It should be a Corrosion and an Exclamation mark .

Has anyone else noticed this ?

So Chemwatch must have been having a spack the day I did them and now I will have to relabel them
Kinda makes be worry how many others I relabeld might be wrong