Reach-compliant safety data sheets

09 December 2008

TechniData is providing support to SAP users in creating and dispatching Reach-compliant safety data sheets. The compliance management specialist has expanded the SAP Environment, Health & Safety (SAP EH&S) software application with this in mind. The roll-out includes modifications for the property tree and help texts. The modifications cover all regulatory requirements and the specifications of Reach Implementation Project (RIP) 3.2-2.

Reach-compliant safety data sheets

Eight leading chemical companies collaborated on the development and tested the product prior to release, including BASF, BYK, DuPont, and Evonik Goldschmidt. BYK, the Altana Group’s Additives & Instruments division, participated in this project to gain expertise in Reach-compliant safety data sheets as fast as possible and compare notes on its experience with that of other companies affected. One of the other companies involved, Evonik Goldschmidt GmbH, a manufacturer of special chemicals based mainly on silicones, is using its collaboration with TechniData to ensure the company wastes no time in working with the adapted property tree and to create Reach-compliant safety data sheets.

As well as expanding SAP EH&S, TechniData has also extended TechniData CLEO, which offers regulatory data, phrase catalogs, expert rules, and report templates in the form of a complete package. In TechniData CLEO, the data sheet template was adapted and all phrases agreed by the relevant RIP were adopted. Phrases are used by companies to describe substance usages. As in the past, TechniData will promptly map all further phrase changes in the database.

The EU Reach chemicals legislation has brought with it a series of organisational and content-related changes for creating safety data sheets. The most important content-related development is that companies must specify usages of substances covered by REACH and use these as a basis for risk assessment. Section 1 of the safety data sheet must now list an overview of all usages of a given substance. For each usage an annex is also added to the SDS, itemising all parameters relevant for risk analysis.

Companies therefore need to check for what purpose and under what conditions participants in the added value chain use substances regulated by Reach. For cost-effective communication with customers and suppliers, SAP EH&S offers integration with SAP Reach Compliance. The SAP Reach Compliance software application supports all operational processes in companies to ensure end-to-end implementation of processes prescribed by Reach. The application enables information to be exchanged electronically throughout the Reach-related steps so as to gather information on the usage and exposure scenarios of customers and suppliers.