It is hard to understate the significance of having up-to-date health and safety information. In 2019 in the USA alone, over five thousand people were fatally injured in the workplace. Many of these may have avoidable with better and up-to-date workplace safety information.
You will want to ensure your safety data sheets are consistent and relevant to account for this. This article will talk about safety data sheet management and how you can aim to ensure your documentation is relevant at all times. That way, you can ensure you are compliant with what you need to do to keep your workers safe.
1. Date and Control Your Safety Data Sheets
You do not want your workers referencing old safety data sheets. This is very hazardous, as your employees will then be working from old information that could lead to them making mistakes.
Your SDS management system should include a process by which you date safety data sheets and control how they get distributed. This can allow each employee to ensure they have the latest versions at all times.
2. Centralize Your Management Process
On one hand, if every separate department manages its own inventory and data sheets, it can be beneficial. You can have an assurance of consistency.
On the other hand, this means that every department has to receive training to be up-to-speed on the creation and management of safety data sheets. This also means that a lot of work gets duplicated in the safety data sheet process.
Using SDS software or MSDS software can help with this to ensure everyone uses the same forms to input their information, but you can go further.
You can centralize the process by having one department responsible for the creation of the safety data sheet. Over time, this will make them experts in its creation. You can even have a single manager overseeing the whole process, ensuring you have a single point of contact for the task.
3. Enact Regular Updates
No matter whether you put your SDS online or not, you have to ensure that it is up-to-date at all times. Anything that is in your current inventory needs a reference in a safety data sheet and people need to be able to access this information at all times. If you change manufacturer, chemicals, or processes, your SDS needs to update in kind.
Using SDS management software, you can make sure you keep this all up-to-date. You can let your employees see only the latest versions and also let them know when a sheet receives an update. Such software also allows for archiving of old sheets, so you can have legacy information available where relevant.
Where Next?
You should now have a good idea of how to improve your safety data sheet management moving forward. If you still have questions, though, our service is here to help.
Our specialist teams can help you with how you manage your safety data sheet and can answer any questions you have. So get in contact today before you take the next steps.
