US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will adopt GHS version 7
Jun 21, 2021
Keeping up with the ongoing adaptions of the Global Harmonized Standard (GHS) for chemical products can be a challenging task, so it’s important to understand the current landscape of these continuously changing regulations. The United Nations (UN) publishes a new version of the GHS for chemical product safety data sheets (SDS) and labeling every two years. Since it takes several years for countries to adopt new laws, there can be a lag time between the UN’s version and those adopted into laws. The most recent GHS version 8 was published in July of 2019, and version 9 is due later this year. The EU adopted the changes from versions 6 and 7 last year. The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have adopted, or are currently incorporating version 7 of GHS.
The differences between the current versions and version 7 are not drastic but include some physical hazards categories added (i.e.; desensitized explosives, pyrophoric gases and chemically unstable gases), and several of the precautionary phrases have been modified for clarification purposes.
Different GHS revisions and languages are adopted based on the countries’ local regulations. It’s necessary, yet challenging, to keep your SDS up-to-date and compliant with GHS standards at all times. Since the regulations vary regularly, it can be challenging to keep track of these changes for global companies. Many companies hire SDS experts and implement SDS authoring software to help simplify the process.
Why should you care?
Valuable resources offered by companies like Quantum Compliance can help streamline the process of making sure your products are compliant with global regulations.
