Professional Documents
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IMPORTANT?
If your organisation uses or supplies chemical Your supplier is responsible for providing accurate
products you should know about CHIP and the Safety data sheets are important in helping safety data sheets with dangerous chemicals. The
requirement for safety data sheets. you, or anyone you supply, to make the supplier might be the manufacturer, or an importer
workplace safe and to protect the environment. or distributor.
You should be receiving safety data sheets
with many chemicals, and you may be a More specifically, a safety data sheet contains You should not receive the safety data sheet later
business which has to provide safety data information to help you make a risk than the product itself. However, it may be sent
sheets with your own products. assessment as required by the Control of separately, for example it could be transmitted
Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations electronically (if you have the technology to
This leaflet explains why the information in a (COSHH). receive it).
safety data sheet is important, both to you and
to others. The safety data sheet itself is not an As well as receiving dangerous chemicals you may
assessment. However, it will describe the supply them on to others. It is important that you
hazards, helping you to assess the probability also pass on safety data sheets containing enough
WHAT IS REQUIRED? of those hazards (ie the risk) arising in the information to make sure that the chemicals can
workplace. continue to be used safely. You may be able to use
CHIP, which stands for the Chemicals (Hazard the safety data sheet your suppliers give you to
Information and Packaging for Supply) To help with COSHH risk assessments, HSE produce your own. But it is your responsibility to
Regulations 2002 requires suppliers to identify has developed simple step-by-step guidance, make sure that the safety data sheet is accurate.
the hazards (or dangers) of the chemicals they which starts with the information on the safety
supply. This is called classification. If a chemical data sheet, and ends with an explanation of Even if the safety data sheet is adequate when you
is classified as dangerous under CHIP, your how employers can best protect their workers. receive it, you may need to add extra information if
supplier must provide you with information This guidance, known as COSHH Essentials, you know more about how the product will be used
about the hazards that the chemical presents. is available free on the Internet at www.coshh- than the original supplier could have known.
essentials.org.uk. The information on the
Some hazard information will be provided on safety data sheets is important, especially the
labels, but an important requirement of CHIP is boiling point and the classification, because it WHAT ARE THE EXCEPTIONS?
that your supplier must provide you with more will help you to do your COSHH Essentials risk
detailed hazard information on a safety data assessment. If this information is not on the CHIP does not cover all hazardous chemicals.
sheet. safety data sheet, you should ask your Some groups of chemicals, such as medicines and
supplier to provide it. cosmetics, are covered by other legislation and
have different rules for packaging and labelling.