Product Safety: GHS FAQ
By: Kirsten Alcock, Manager of Product Safety, email
The most frequently asked question right now is “Will my US SDS meet Canadian standards?”.
To answer it simply, no.
Although both countries adopted GHS, the US adopted version 3 and Canada adopted version 5. Many think that you can translate the US SDS and send it to Canada to meet our bilingual regulations but this is not the case. In order to be compliant with WHMIS 2015, the SDS for Canada must follow version 5 statements and should contain some pertinent Canadian-only information. In addition to French language translation, Canadian SDS’s should contain:
- Information about the Domestic Substances List (DSL).
- Information about the Canadian Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG). While DOT and TDG are similar, there are situations where a US exemption is not valid in Canada.
- Precautionary statements are emphasized through the use of FULL CAPITALS. While this seems like a subtle difference, GHS version 5 capitalizes the first few words of some precautionary statements which help the user find critical safety information in an emergency.
If you require assistance converting your US SDS to be compliant with Canadian regulations, please contact us.
Contact:
Dell Tech
Kirsten Alcock, B.Sc. (Hons)
Manager, Product Safety Group
519-858-5074
kirsten@delltech.com
Dell Tech has provided professional, confidential consulting services to the chemical specialty
industry in Canada, the USA, Europe, and Asia for the last 40 years.
Contact us today for more information.
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