Australia's Science Forum

Thanks Kate

For the DoE schools you only need a sds for solid or conc goods. Not Lime water and dulited solutions. Not too sure about the other schools. Some times it can be very misleading for new people.

You need a SDS for everything you buy in. If you buy in 1M HCl then you need the SDS. If you make it up yourself from concentrated HCl then you don't. Same with bromine water.

My understanding is that you need a Chemical Register with SDS and correct labelling for all hazardous substances whether bought or made up. So you need to check whether what you are making up and using is hazardous.

The advice I received at Phillip Crisp's Lab Safety course was to have the SDS for hazardous substances that are bought in, not needed for solutions you make yourself.

Has any one got any more information on this as from march 2018. One staff member is telling me that we don't have to print as long as we can access on line which could even be through ipad or phone and another one is saying that we now have to have them all printed, help please.

Hi Pinky
The legislation says that the SDSs have to be available to all workers who use the substance. The issue with the digital format, is what happens if there is a problem accessing this data, e.g. black out, internet outage etc. So it is up to your school which way you go. Here, I have relied on the printed format with copies in science and the front office.

If you keep searching on Chemtalk, I am sure I have ranted over the pros and cons before.

If you are a DoE school, you must have paper copies. Well put Merilyn,

Labbie wrote:If you are a DoE school, you must have paper copies. Well put Merilyn,

I'm starting to feel old by not wanting to trust anything electronic!

Hi Kate,
In that instance, I would use the ChemWatch "Gold SDS" The manufacturer's SDS is what is stipulated, but a good "wrong" SDS has got to be better than NO SDS. I'm sure that ANY sensible magistrate would concede that in court, if the "proper" one was not available!
Cheers
Ian