Storing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) In Your CMMS

Material Safety Data Sheets, or MSDS, contain all of the important safety information needed for Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) purposes.

Typically, a company must have the MSDS for every stored chemical product readily available for access by employees. This is enforced in various ways. For example, in Alberta, Canada, an employer who does not have the required MSDS available can be issued an on-the-spot $500 fine. The requirements and enforcement vary between countries and provinces, however.

One way that you could make your MSDS readily available to all of your staff is to store it within your CMMS. For each chemical in your inventory the relevant MSDS can be stored as an attachment. An example of this practice is to store the MSDS in the files section of the Floor Cleaner that is being tracked in a Fiix

CMMS, as is being done in the image below. If stored this way, the MSDS is easily found and retrieved whenever it is needed.

You should check your local requirements for your own specific requirements about the acceptable methods for storing MSDS for your company. In the USA, a general ruling from the OSHA permits electronic storage of MSDS provided they can be easily accessed and a physical copy is stored also. More information can be found on the OHSA website.

For information about Alberta’s on the spot fines see the Alberta Human Services website.