skip to main content

An MSDS or material safety data sheet is the backbone of a compliant hazardous chemical management system. Unfortunately, MSDSs rarely get the respect they deserve, at least not until the day it is urgently needed in an emergency or is requested by an OSHA inspector.

By that time it is often lost in a sea of paper in the filing cabinet or stuck in the middle of a yellow binder with hundreds or thousands of other similar looking data sheets. That’s the bad news.

The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way. With a good online MSDS management system, safety data sheets are indexed and organized in a way that makes it easy for you to quickly find exactly what you need. Furthermore, a good electronic solution provides access to a database with millions of MSDSs at your fingertips and robust reporting features.

But that’s just the start; with an on-demand solution, MSDSs can be the key to tracking your hazardous chemical inventory, providing real time data on what chemicals you have in your facility and in what quantities. Properly managed, they can also power compliance regulatory cross referencing solutions.

At the enterprise level, MSDSs are great. But what sometimes gets lost in the discussion about MSDSs is how critical they can be to the safety of your employees.

Employees in need of information about the hazards of the chemicals they are working with can find it on a safety data sheet. They can also learn how to use the chemical safely, what safety measures they can take to protect themselves, what PPE’s to use, how to respond to spills or accidental exposure and how to safely dispose of the chemical.

In fact, employers have a responsibility under the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to ensure employees know how to read an MSDS and find the critical safety information described above. This is where employee training comes in.

To that end, VelocityEHS offers an online training course entitled “MSDS Training” that can help.

Course Coverage
MSDS Training provides both workers and supervisors with a better understanding of how to interpret a Material Safety Data Sheet and describes specific requirements associated with MSDSs in the workplace. Primary Regs: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200, Hazard Communication.

Training Options
Call 1.888.362.2007, or visit Workplace Training for information about our on-demand training offering, including a list of available courses. If you’re interested in an option that does not require all employees to be present at the same time, you can take a pass on a classroom style format and consider an online solution.