Do Material MSDS's Need To Be Controlled?

[NikkiQSM]

Hello All -

I searched all over, but could not find the answer. So please forgive me if this has been asked already.

We produced plastic pellets which are sold to medical and / or non-medical extrusion houses / molding facilities.

We make an MSDS or soon to be just called SDS for each formulation. Do we need to control the SDS documents like our other documents per ISO 9001:2008?

Thank you,
NikkiQSM

 

[John Broomfield]

Re: Our Material MSDS's Do They Need To Be Controlled?

Hello All -

I searched all over, but could not find the answer. So please forgive me if this has been asked already.

We produced plastic pellets which are sold to medical and / or non-medical extrusion houses / molding facilities.

We make an MSDS or soon to be just called SDS for each formulation. Do we need to control the SDS documents like our other documents per ISO 9001:2008?

Thank you,
NikkiQSM

Nikki,

Yes, accurate information could be vital to the health, safety and wellbeing of your customers.

See clause 5.2 and the regulations that are applicable to your product.

John

 

[Ninja]

Re: Our Material MSDS's Do They Need To Be Controlled?

Hi Nikki,

Control not needed by ISO9001...but control is highly recommended anyway (My opinion) {Just saw John's post above...I'll check into this further...Thanks John!}

If you send an SDS for product A...revise the SDS for product A...then ship Product A again to the same customer...how does the customer know which one is most up to date?
SDS / MSDS typically have a revision preparation date on them.

This is not an ISO question anymore...it is a risk management and legal compliance question that you'll want to run by legal counsel, not an ISO auditor.

Check out OSHA guidance for handling of MSDS / SDS. They have quite a bit online at the OSHA.gov site...specifically the requirements for Section 16 of the SDS.

{Following up from John's post above...5.2 is a stretch, but valid all the same I guess...I've never controlled MSDS's under the QMS and never had a finding on it. They are revision controlled due to the legal need to do so, but they are controlled separately from the QHS document control system. I don't see any issue with controlling them within the QMS, it just never occurred to me to do so (not sure why) }

 

[John Broomfield]

Re: Our Material MSDS's Do They Need To Be Controlled?

Ninja,

Please check clause 7.2.1c and clause 5.2.

John