The Hazard Communication Standard had by 1987, required businesses to collect and maintain Material Safety Data Sheets on the hazardous products to which their employees were exposed. After 29 years, MSDS’s are being phased out.
We are presently in a phase in – phase out period where employers have a choice of using the MSDS or SDS. The SDS, short for Safety Data Sheet, serves the same purpose as the MSDS, but as a UN approved form, it is recognized by hundreds of countries. As such, it will simplify the regulatory process that manufacturers endure when they export products in the global market. Supposedly, information conveyed on both forms is similar.
Most funeral homes were able to retain their MSDS file in a 3-ring binder that was two to three inches thick. I assumed similar binders would be needed to house the SDS file. It would be a massive understatement to say my assumption was wrong. The average MSDS file was one to three pages. The average SDS file that conveyed the same basic information is ten pages. I don’t know why it is longer.
A typical funeral home will have a minimum of 25 products that require an SDS. If they have several embalmers, the number of products might reach one hundred. Do the math. One hundred ten page files require two reams (1000 sheets) of paper. Add alpha tabs and a 20 page chemical list and you need four 3-ring binders to house your SDS file.
“Long story short.” We emailed customers the links to every major supplier’s SDS page. In some cases, we mailed what is called a thumb drive. A thumb drive is about the size of a Bic® lighter and much smaller than four 3-ring binders. Virtually any hazardous mortuary product can be accessed in a couple of clicks.
There are a few shortfalls. You have to teach exposed employees how to access the electronic SDS. Perhaps you have a non-English speaking employee working in maintenance. You may need to identify the products those employees are exposed to and use a paper SDS to house them. You should try to find the appropriate foreign language version of the SDS if the employee cannot read English.
Notwithstanding that, the thumb drive or the links pasted in your hard drive render the SDS file that would be housed in the 3-ring binder obsolete. In most cases it is no longer needed. That is simple OSHA compliance at its best.