Safety data sheet
Also known as: SDS, MSDS, VIB
The safety data sheet is the sixteen-section document with which you underpin the classification, the REACH status and the transport requirements of a substance. At a customs control it is usually the first document that is asked for.
Why does a controller ask for the SDS first?
Because the sheet identifies the substance in a way the invoice does not. The invoice names a trade name and a price. The SDS names CAS, EC number, composition, hazards, flash point, UN number, class and the legislation that rests on the substance. With that you test the goods code, the TARIC measure, the ADR classification and the REACH status in one document. At a physical control the sheet is the evidence that you know what is in the packages. A file with only an invoice 'chemicals' or 'cleaning product' is a file without identity. The SDS gives that identity, provided it belongs with this consignment: the same substance, the same supplier, the same version. MSDS is the old name, especially on American papers. SDS or VIB is the REACH name. An American MSDS of twelve sections is not the EU sheet of sixteen sections. Replace it, or ask for the EU sheet, before you put it as underpinning in a Union file.
Which of the sixteen sections count for the declaration?
Section 1: identification of the substance, the supplier, CAS, EC, REACH registration number. Section 2: hazard classification under CLP. Section 3: composition and concentrations, often the key to the tariff heading. Section 9: physical properties, including the flash point, which on flammable liquids forces the classification. Section 14: transport data, UN number, official name, class, packing group. Section 15: legislation, authorisation, restriction, national rules. The other sections are for the user and the emergency response: first aid, fire, accidental release, handling, exposure, toxicology, ecology, disposal. You do not need those in the declaration, but they do belong with the document you keep, because the controller can ask for the whole sheet, not only 3, 9 and 14. A sheet on which section 14 says 'not applicable' while the substance is clearly class 3 is a sheet that does not belong with the consignment or has not been updated. A sheet on which section 3 leaves out the concentrations leaves you guessing at the tariff heading. Both are a stop.
Which version, which language, which supplier?
The sheet has to belong with the substance you import, from the supplier of this consignment, in a version that carries the current CLP classification and the current REACH status. A sheet of the previous supplier, or of three years ago, can carry a different classification, a different UN number or a withdrawn registration. That is worse than no sheet, because it contradicts the consignment note and the declaration. The language is the language of the Member State of the user. For a Dutch consignee that is Dutch, or at least a sheet that meets the language requirement of REACH. An English sheet can be useful internally. It is not always the prescribed document for the user here. Ask for the sheet at intake, not at the control. Put version and date in the article card, and replace the card when a new sheet comes in. Chemicals change. An article card without a version of the SDS is a card you cannot defend.
How does the SDS feed the goods code and the UN number?
Sections 3 and 9 feed the tariff heading. An organic compound with a particular functional group, a flash point under a threshold, a content of a substance that forces a residual heading or a specific heading: that sits in the sheet, not on the invoice. Anyone who classifies on the trade name classifies in the wrong column, and misses the measure that belongs with the right heading. Section 14 feeds the UN number, the class and the packing group. That set goes to the ADR document and to the labelling, not to DMS. If 14 is empty, the substance is not classified as dangerous for transport, or the sheet is incomplete. You have to know that difference before the trailer is ordered. Lay 3, 9 and 14 side by side. A substance with flash point 20 °C and a UN number of a non-flammable class is an internal conflict in the sheet, or a sheet of two substances. Resolve that with the supplier, not with a guess in the article card.
How does the SDS hang on REACH, and what if the number is missing?
Section 1 or 15 carries the REACH registration number if the substance above the threshold has been registered. If the number is missing, there are three readings: the substance sits under one tonne per year, it is exempted, or it is not registered and may not go on the market. The third reading is the default until the contrary is underpinned, not the first. An Only Representative belongs to be visible in the same identification, or in the importer's chain. The SDS of an Asian producer without an EU representative is a sheet of someone who cannot register themselves. The importer is then the registrant, or the substance does not go into free circulation. DMS does not ask for this number. The inspectorate later does, and the customer who themselves fall under REACH too. A file without an SDS, or with an SDS without identification, is a file that cannot answer that question.
What do you keep, and for how long, next to the declaration?
The sheet of this consignment, this supplier, this version, with the file, next to invoice, packing list and transport document. Not 'the SDS of this substance' in a general folder of 2019. At a post-clearance control, or at an incident, the question is which sheet belonged with those packages. A general sheet does not answer that question. The customs record-keeping duty in the Netherlands is seven years. The SDS falls under that if it is the underpinning of the classification and of the documents. Keeping it longer is a choice of the customer, not a promise of a system. What you may not do is throw the sheet away as soon as the trailer has driven off, because 'it is a transport document'. Keep the link visible: this MRN, this article, this SDS, this version. Without that link the sheet is a pdf in a mailbox, and a pdf in a mailbox is, at a recovery three years later, gone.