How many sections does a safety data sheet have?

Sixteen, in a fixed order set by the retained REACH Regulation. Sections 2, 3, 7 and 8 do most of the work in a COSHH assessment.

Is a safety data sheet the same as a COSHH assessment?

No. The sheet describes the substance in general; the assessment is about your job — quantity, duration, space and people — and reaches a conclusion about control that the sheet cannot.

Where do I get a safety data sheet?

From the supplier, free of charge. Most publish them for download by product code. If a supplier will not provide one for a hazardous product, that is a problem with the supplier.

How often are safety data sheets updated?

Whenever the classification, formulation or the underlying law changes. Each sheet carries a revision date and version number, which is what you check against the copy in your folder.

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Safety data sheets: which sections a COSHH assessment actually needs

A safety data sheet has sixteen sections, in a fixed order set by law. For a COSHH assessment, four of them do most of the work — sections 2, 8, 3 and 7 — and the rest are reference for when something goes wrong.

This page covers what an SDS is, who has to give you one, the sections that matter for an assessment, and the limits of what it can tell you.

Writing an SDS is the supplier's duty and a specialist job. This page is about reading one.
Process exposures — dust from cutting, welding fume — have no supplier and no sheet. They are assessed from the published limits instead.

On this page

What it is, and who has to give you one
The four sections that carry an assessment
What a data sheet cannot tell you
Keeping them, and keeping them current

What it is, and who has to give you one

A safety data sheet is the document a supplier must provide for a hazardous substance or mixture, in a format fixed by the retained REACH Regulation. It is free, and it is not optional: if a supplier will not give you one for a hazardous product, that is a problem with the supplier.

Two things it is often confused with. It is not a COSHH assessment — it describes the substance in general and knows nothing about your job. And it is not the same as a product data sheet or a technical sheet, which are about performance rather than hazard.

People also say "COSHH sheet" and "COSHH data sheet", which usually means the safety data sheet. There is no such thing as a COSHH sheet in law.

The four sections that carry an assessment

Section 2 — Hazards identification: The classification, the pictograms, the signal word and the hazard statements. This is where you learn whether it is a health hazard at all, and it is the section that decides whether COSHH covers the product.
Section 8 — Exposure controls: The workplace exposure limits for the hazardous ingredients, and the controls and protective equipment the supplier recommends. The limits here are the yardstick your assessment measures against.
Section 3 — Composition: Which hazardous substances are in the mixture, at what concentration, with their CAS numbers. This is how you find out that a product is essentially a solvent, or that a foam is an isocyanate.
Section 7 — Handling and storage: Incompatibilities, ventilation, and what to keep it away from. Feeds directly into how you store it.

The other twelve are not padding — sections 4 (first aid), 5 (firefighting) and 6 (accidental release) are the ones you want on the day something goes wrong, and section 1 has the emergency telephone number. But they do not shape the assessment.

What a data sheet cannot tell you

It cannot tell you how much exposure your job produces. That is the whole gap between a sheet and an assessment: the sheet says what the substance does, and your work decides how much of it reaches a person.

It also cannot tell you about anything the work generates. Cut a treated timber and the dust is not on any sheet; weld a galvanised section and the fume is not either. Suppliers describe what they supplied.

And section 8's recommended protective equipment is generic advice for the substance, not a control decision for your task. A sheet suggesting gloves and eye protection has not decided that gloves and eye protection are adequate in a confined space for four hours.

Keeping them, and keeping them current

Sheets are revised — when a classification changes, when a formulation changes, when the law changes. A sheet carries a revision date and a version number, and one printed in 2016 may no longer describe what is in the tin.

That is the practical case for a COSHH register rather than a folder: a list of what the firm actually uses, with the sheet and its version against each one, so "is this current?" is a question with an answer.

Questions people ask

How many sections does a safety data sheet have?: Sixteen, in a fixed order set by the retained REACH Regulation. Sections 2, 3, 7 and 8 do most of the work in a COSHH assessment.
Is a safety data sheet the same as a COSHH assessment?: No. The sheet describes the substance in general; the assessment is about your job — quantity, duration, space and people — and reaches a conclusion about control that the sheet cannot.
Where do I get a safety data sheet?: From the supplier, free of charge. Most publish them for download by product code. If a supplier will not provide one for a hazardous product, that is a problem with the supplier.
How often are safety data sheets updated?: Whenever the classification, formulation or the underlying law changes. Each sheet carries a revision date and version number, which is what you check against the copy in your folder.