Australia's Science Forum

Gosh Vickir that is very interesting, indeed.

Can you PM me the company name? Rather curious.

PM sent Merilyn1.

Yes very curious as they are acting illegally. By law all chemicals supplied must have a manufacturers SDS. It is when you have chemicals from companies who no longer exist that it gets tricky.

Can you PM me the company as well?

Maybe we should all know the company's name.......if they are acting illegally I don't want to use them!!

if you could pm too please about to put an order in.

I think the law requires the supplier to provide a SDS to a customer on the first occasion they purchase the chemical within a certain time period (it may be 12 months). They may get around this by having them available on their website, but I'm not sure.

No I do not think we write our own SDS, Download it from Chemwatch. Government stores was once q-stores then office max.

I confirmed with safework - one at the main prep room and front office and I have mine hyperlinked on the chemical manifest and on main school drive so everyone has access and of course IT have locked the file so no one can go and delete all my sds's ... one step ahead... K8

Vickir could you also email me the supplier. I have just received an order with chemicals in it and there was certainly no SDS at all included.
Is it stated somewhere that it is a WHS rule that they are supposed to be supplied with any purchase of chemicals??

I had this same issue with a chinese chemical provided to me. I asked for an SDS and the label pictograms did not match the sds pictogram. So I asked for a proper sds. They were unable to provide one that was correct. Most of the sds was N/A in places were there was a known hazard. I promptly sent all the chemicals back. Now I just use chem supply chemicals. I learnt the hard way.
Would someone please PM me the name of the company where they purchased please so I dont use them also.

melsid wrote:I've printed out the full SDS for all of the chemicals we have, whether they have signal words or not. Just being sure to be sure.... I've also saved a copy of the PDF into a folder on the staff drive for ease of access for all staff.

By searching online I've located an SDS for everything we have here. Most companies (if they still exist!!) have them available online.

Hi,
I am about to undertake printing the SDS for the whole school.
Do you have any advice regarding finding SDS as I have just spent hours hunting on Chemwatch - some were dated 2011 so out of date.
I also searched online as there are things such as dishwashing liquid and handwash but I can't find them.
I don't think I am using Chemwatch correctly either as it has to be easier to find than that!
Please help if you have time.
Many thanks
S

Hi,
I am about to undertake printing the SDS for the whole school.
Do you have any advice regarding finding SDS as I have just spent hours hunting on Chemwatch - some were dated 2011 so out of date.
I also searched online as there are things such as dishwashing liquid and handwash but I can't find them.
I don't think I am using Chemwatch correctly either as it has to be easier to find than that!
Please help if you have time.
Many thanks
S

Good luck Soozle .
Only hint I can give you if you are using Chemwatch is make sure the "Vender" Button is selected otherwise you get the generic "Gold SDS's"

Also search with the manufacture's name first .
EG "Diggers Methylated spirit" will find exactly that whereas typing " methylated spirits " won't necessarily bring up the Diggers brand .

And you are correct that there often aren't any new SDS's . A few items I have just had to choose the closest alternative and mark it on the print out

Soozle - you have learnt that Chemwatch isn't always easy. I usually search on-line for the SDS (Chemsupply has an excellent site for their SDSs). I know some schools are told to use Chemwatch but some issues are that Safework NSW (formally Workcover) state that the SDS must be from the manufacturer, third party SDSs are not recognised. In addition, they must include the Australian contact details for the manufacturer.
If you are unable to obtain the correct SDS, you may substitute with a similar product. Fine for chemicals, not so good for things like flysprays, cleaning products which have specific formulations. If you can't find the SDS or a suitable substitute, you should consider disposing of the product.
Good luck with your searching.

Use the CAS number in chemwatch instead of name for undiluted chemicals. You will need to change from product name to CAS number.
or if you buy most chemicals from chem supply use the website for chem supply and punch in the product code found on the bottle.

bigmack wrote:Good luck Soozle .
Only hint I can give you if you are using Chemwatch is make sure the "Vender" Button is selected otherwise you get the generic "Gold SDS's"

Also search with the manufacture's name first .
EG "Diggers Methylated spirit" will find exactly that whereas typing " methylated spirits " won't necessarily bring up the Diggers brand .

And you are correct that there often aren't any new SDS's . A few items I have just had to choose the closest alternative and mark it on the print out

This is very helpful, thanks bigmack

Thanks heaps Merilyn1 and bigmack, this has been very helpful.
Soozle.
P.s I'm sorry if I commented in the wrong place, not sure of my way round here yet!

If you are a DET NSW school please refer to the Yammer Labbies, conversation regarding printing SDS's for whole school.

I recently had to complete a whole NEW manifest of the chemicals we had as well as source all their SDS's - thankfully 60% of ours were Chemsupply - but you really SHOULD HAVE the SDS relavent to the brand you have purchased or as mentioned discard of 157 chemicals I have 5 ... Aqua Sand. Lime Water (which is made up anyway) Calcium Sulfate (plaster of paris) Graphite powder and phenolphthalein that I dont have manufacturers SDS ... But my HoD said it was ok to keep them and use alternate ...