OSHA Policy on MSDS sheets

Woody2

Does anyone know from experience what preferance the inspector has for order of filing MSDS sheets for employees to view. Is it by ABCs of product name, chemical name or CAS Number or maybe even ingredients. Maybe? grouped by use, such as "lubricants", "solvents", "gases". What your opinion? 

mperez_jetrord_com

I organize mine by Product name but in the front of the book I have them listed by Chemical name and right by it the Product Name.  That way its easy to find the information either way the employees prefer to look.  It has been reviewed in 4 different warehouses by OSHA auditors and they have had not issues.

darreltyre

In my experience, OSHA inspectors are quick to fault any method that the typical employee cannot easily retreive the information.  Usually they want to look it up when they have it all over them, so speed of finding it is important. The more complicated the access, the more difficult a specific sheet is to find, then the more employee training is required. As an example, if your typical employee doesn't know whether they are looking for a solvent or a lubricant, then MSDSs shouldn't be accessed by catagories. I've usually had a computer master list on Excel so they can be alpha easier when additional MSDSs are included. Then alpha them by what ever the shop floor calls it. Hard copies are alpha in a manual with a tab for the shop floor name. I hope this helps.

Darrel

LivindonSouth

We organize our first by department of use, then alpha.

hr410

We organize by product name (since this what they are most commonly referred to )

NicoleFessler

At one of our locations we have a retired OSHA inspector.  His recommendation is to organize the MSDS by department that uses them and then number the sheets.  And then use your chemical inventory sheet at the front of your book to double as a table of contents, which would list your chemicals in the same order as you keep them in your book.  This system also makes it very simple to replace an old MSDS with an updated one.