A safety data sheet, or SDS, is the standard document communicating a chemical product's hazards and the precautions needed to handle it safely. It follows a defined 16-section structure covering identification, hazards, composition, first aid, firefighting, accidental release, handling and storage, exposure controls, physical and chemical properties, stability, toxicology, ecology, disposal, transport, regulatory information and other information.
It is a legal requirement rather than a courtesy. Suppliers must provide a compliant SDS for hazardous substances and mixtures, and it must be kept current - if classification changes or new hazard information emerges, the sheet has to be updated and recipients informed. It is also the document downstream users rely on to meet their own duties, including COSHH assessments.
The SDS follows from classification rather than preceding it. A product's hazards are determined first, under CLP, and the sheet then communicates them. This means an error in classification propagates into both the label and the safety data sheet, reaching every customer downstream - which is why classification deserves proper attention.
In contract manufacturing, agree explicitly who authors and maintains the SDS for the finished product, since it does not follow automatically from who manufactured it. See safety data sheets and flash point, which is one of the properties it records.
Agree explicitly who authors and maintains the safety data sheet for the finished product, and who updates it when classification changes. It does not follow automatically from who manufactured the product, and an out-of-date sheet is a compliance failure that reaches every customer.
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Last reviewed: August 2026. Regulation and guidance change — verify anything you rely on against the primary source. Tell us if something here is out of date.
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