Work Health and Safety (Preparation of Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals) Code of Practice 2015

The Work Health and Safety (Preparation of Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals) Code of Practice 2015 is an approved code of practice under section 274 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. The foreword says an approved code is a practical guide to achieving the standards of health, safety and welfare required under the WHS Act and the Work Health and Safety Regulations.

That matters because this is not just background reading. The Code says that in most cases, following an approved code of practice would achieve compliance with the health and safety duties in the WHS Act in relation to the subject matter of the code. It is also admissible in court proceedings, courts may rely on it as evidence of what is known about a hazard, risk or control, and an inspector may refer to it when issuing an improvement or prohibition notice.

The Code was developed by Safe Work Australia as a model code of practice for adoption by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments. That means businesses should not assume the Commonwealth instrument is the only version that matters everywhere in Australia. If your operations are in a state or territory WHS jurisdiction, check whether that jurisdiction has adopted this model code, adopted it with changes, or uses different local guidance.

The Code itself also says references to provisions of the WHS Act and Regulations are not exhaustive. In practical terms, this page should be read as guidance on SDS preparation and maintenance for hazardous chemicals, not as a complete list of every legal requirement that may apply to your products, workplace, transport arrangements, environmental obligations or industry-specific rules.

The Code applies to substances, mixtures and articles used, handled or stored at the workplace that are defined as hazardous chemicals under the WHS Regulations. It provides practical guidance on how to prepare an SDS for hazardous chemicals being manufactured or imported for use, handling or storage in Australia. It applies to a person conducting a business or undertaking involved in the manufacture or import of hazardous chemicals that will be used, or could reasonably be expected to be used, in workplaces.

The extract defines a hazardous chemical by reference to the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals, including classifications referred to in Schedule 6 of the WHS Regulations, but excluding chemicals that satisfy the criteria solely for certain listed hazard classes and categories. For most businesses, the practical point is that you should not guess whether a product is a hazardous chemical. Classification needs to be done properly before first supply to a workplace.

The Code also says that before first supplying a substance, mixture or article to a workplace, manufacturers and importers have an obligation to determine whether it is a hazardous chemical and, if so, to correctly classify it. The person writing the SDS should have appropriate expertise and access to the product formulation and information on its correct hazard classification.

The Code says preparing and providing an SDS is mandatory where a substance, mixture or article is a hazardous chemical. It then lists chemicals for which the WHS Regulations do not require an SDS to be prepared, although the general duty of care requirements under the WHS Act still apply.

The listed examples include chemicals in batteries while they are incorporated in plant, fuel, oils or coolants in a container fitted to a vehicle, vessel, aircraft, mobile plant, appliance or other device where they are intended for use in its operation, fuel in the fuel container of a domestic or portable fuel burning appliance where the quantity does not exceed 25 kg or 25 litres, hazardous chemicals in portable fire-fighting or medical equipment for use at a workplace, hazardous chemicals forming part of the integrated refrigeration system of refrigerated freight containers, and potable liquids that are consumer products at retail premises.

The Code also says some things are excluded from the scope of the WHS Regulations except to the extent that their use, handling or storage is related to a work activity at a workplace. The extract lists food and beverages in a package and form intended for human consumption, therapeutic goods at the point of intentional intake by or administration to humans, veterinary chemical products at the point of administration to animals, and tobacco or products made of tobacco.

These exclusions are easy to overread. They do not mean a business can ignore workplace risk management. They mean the SDS preparation requirement under this part of the WHS framework may not apply in those specific situations. Other WHS duties, and other legal regimes, may still matter.

Regulation 330, as summarised in the Code, requires an SDS to be prepared before first manufacturing or importing a hazardous chemical, or if that is not possible, as soon as practicable after first manufacturing or importing the chemical. For business owners, this is a product launch and supply-chain timing rule. SDS work should happen before the product reaches the workplace market, not after a customer asks for it.

The Code goes further than the minimum mandatory trigger. It says an SDS should be provided for any chemical that may adversely impact the health or safety of persons or the environment but where there is insufficient information to allow it to be correctly classified. In that case, the SDS should reflect what is currently known about the chemical.

It also recommends preparing an SDS for a mixture containing an ingredient that meets the criteria for respiratory sensitisation, skin sensitisation, specific target organ toxicity, reproductive toxicity, carcinogenicity or mutagenicity, even if the mixture overall is not a hazardous chemical according to the WHS Regulations. The extract also says other information on hazard properties not already captured within the SDS should be included, for example if the chemical has ototoxic properties.

For engineered or manufactured nanomaterials, or chemicals containing them, the Code says an SDS should be provided unless there is evidence that the nanomaterials are not hazardous. This is a practical warning for businesses working with advanced materials, coatings, additives or specialist imported inputs where the hazard profile may not be obvious from ordinary product descriptions.

The Code summarises the duties of manufacturers and importers of hazardous chemicals. They must prepare an SDS before first manufacturing or importing the hazardous chemical, or as soon as practicable afterwards if that is not practicable. They must review the SDS at least once every five years and amend it whenever necessary to ensure it contains correct current information. They must also provide the current SDS to any person if the person is likely to be affected by the chemical or asks for the SDS.

The Code contains an important note for businesses that rebrand products. A person who packages or relabels a hazardous chemical with their own product name is considered to be a manufacturer and therefore has the same obligations as a manufacturer or importer under the WHS Regulations to prepare an SDS. This catches many private-label and white-label arrangements.

The Code also says a person conducting a business or undertaking may change an SDS for a hazardous chemical only in limited circumstances. One is where the person is an importer or manufacturer and changes the SDS in a way that is consistent with the duties of the importer or manufacturer. Another is where the change is to attach a translation of the SDS, and the translation clearly states that it is not part of the original SDS.

That means businesses should be careful about informal edits to supplier SDSs. Marketing teams, sales staff and distributors should not treat an SDS as a general product sheet that can be rewritten for convenience. Changes need to stay within the legal framework described by the Code.

The Code says an SDS must be prepared and written to provide accurate information about the hazards of a chemical and how to handle it safely, including storage and disposal. It must contain information about physicochemical properties, potential health effects and emergency response measures. The Code also says the SDS should contain information relevant to environmental effects to meet other laws.

Under Regulation 330 and Schedule 7 as summarised in the Code, an SDS must be in English, contain unit measures expressed in Australian legal units of measurement under the National Measurement Act 1960, state the date it was last reviewed or, if it has not been reviewed, the date it was prepared, state the name, Australian address and business telephone number of the manufacturer or importer, and state an Australian business telephone number from which information about the chemical can be obtained in an emergency.

The Code gives practical drafting guidance as well. Language should be simple, clear and precise, avoiding jargon, acronyms and abbreviations. Vague and misleading expressions should not be used. If information on certain properties is of no significance or technically impossible to provide, the reasons should be clearly stated under each heading. If a hazard is said not to exist, the SDS should clearly distinguish between a case where no information is available and a case where negative test results are available.

The Code also recommends document controls. An SDS should include a version number, superseded date or another indication of what version is replaced. All pages should be numbered and should indicate the end of the SDS, for example by using page numbering or wording such as continued on next page or end of SDS.

The Code directly addresses overseas SDSs. An SDS prepared by an overseas manufacturer or supplier is acceptable only if it is prepared in accordance with the WHS Regulations. If the overseas manufacturer's SDS does not comply, the importer is responsible for preparing an SDS that does comply. The Code specifically says that an SDS prepared under another country's GHS-based legislation, such as the EU CLP regime, must still be checked for compliance with the WHS Regulations and amended if necessary.

This is a common practical issue for Australian importers. A foreign SDS may look detailed and professionally prepared, but that does not make it compliant for Australian workplace supply. Emergency contact details, units of measurement, wording, classification treatment and other content may need adjustment.

The Code also allows a single SDS to be prepared for a group of substances, mixtures and articles where it is reasonable to assume the group will have similar hazardous properties, provided the SDS contains all product identifiers. This can be useful for product families with minor variants, but only where the assumption of similar hazardous properties is reasonable.

For research chemicals, waste products or samples for analysis, the Code recognises that full compliance may not be reasonably practicable because hazard properties are not fully known. In those cases, an acceptable SDS must still be written in English, identify the Australian manufacturer or importer, state that full identification or hazard information is not available and that a precautionary approach must be taken, state the chemical identity, structure or composition as far as reasonably practicable, and state any known or suspected hazards and precautions that must be taken to the extent they have been identified.

The Code also says it is acceptable to attach a translation to the original SDS, provided the appended information clearly states that the translation is not part of the original SDS. The original SDS remains the SDS prepared in accordance with the WHS Regulations.

The Code says the SDS must be reviewed every five years from the date of original preparation or the last revision of the SDS. It must also be amended whenever any new information about the hazardous chemical is known or received or when the formulation changes. So the review obligation is both time-based and event-based.

For businesses, the event-based trigger is often the one that gets missed. A formulation change, new toxicological information, revised handling advice, updated emergency response information or a change in classification can all require amendment before the five-year review date arrives.

The Code also says it is not necessary to review the SDS if the manufacturer or importer has not manufactured or imported the chemical in the last five years. Even so, an SDS should still be made available after the hazardous chemical is withdrawn from sale because workplaces may require it later. This is important for discontinued products, long-life industrial stock, archived customer accounts and incident response after a product has left the market.

In practice, businesses should treat SDS management as a controlled document process. That means keeping preparation dates, revision dates, version history, emergency contact details and product identifiers current, and making sure customer-facing teams know how to provide the current SDS when requested.

For a business owner, the Code is most useful when built into product development, procurement and supply workflows. Before first manufacture or import, confirm whether the product is a hazardous chemical, who in your business is legally acting as manufacturer or importer, whether any supplier SDS can actually be used in Australia, and whether the person preparing the SDS has the right expertise and access to formulation and classification information.

The Code also points to several practical traps. One is assuming that a foreign SDS can simply be adopted unchanged. Another is overlooking the fact that packaging or relabelling under your own product name can make you a manufacturer. Another is using vague wording or incomplete hazard information instead of clear, precise statements. A further trap is treating the five-year review date as the only update trigger and missing earlier amendments when new information comes in.

Businesses should also remember that this Code does not override stricter requirements that may apply under other laws. The Code itself says the SDS should contain information relevant to environmental effects to meet other laws, and the foreword says codes deal with particular issues and do not cover all hazards or risks that may arise. Depending on the product and industry, you may also need to consider transport rules, environmental controls, dangerous goods requirements, scheduling rules, product-specific regulation and broader workplace risk controls.

If your business is small, the safest approach is usually to have a repeatable SDS compliance checklist, a clear owner for document control, and a process for checking imported documents against Australian requirements before supply starts.

This page is based on the Commonwealth legislative instrument entry and official text for the Work Health and Safety (Preparation of Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals) Code of Practice 2015 on the Federal Register of Legislation. The instrument is authorised by the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, was approved on 18 March 2016, registered on 30 March 2016 and commenced on the day after registration.

The Code states that it is a model code of practice developed by Safe Work Australia for adoption by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments. Businesses should confirm local adoption and any jurisdiction-specific variations before relying on this page as a complete statement of the law applying to their operations.

The detailed extract available for this page is truncated part-way through the section-by-section guidance in Chapter 3. The core scope, duties, timing rules, exclusions and required SDS headings are clear from the official text, but businesses should check the full current instrument for detailed drafting guidance and examples.