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Most workplaces use chemicals of some kind. Cleaning products, adhesives, solvents, paints, fuels, lubricants. Many of these are classified as hazardous under the WHS Regulations. Managing them properly is a legal obligation and a practical necessity for worker safety.
Our hazardous chemical management audit reviews every aspect of how your workplace stores, handles, uses and disposes of hazardous chemicals. We identify gaps in compliance and provide practical recommendations to bring your systems up to standard.
We review your Safety Data Sheet register to make sure it is complete, current (within 5 years) and accessible to workers. We inspect chemical storage areas for compliance with AS 3780 and relevant dangerous goods requirements. Labelling is checked against GHS requirements.
We also review your risk assessments for chemical use, your chemical spill response procedures, your training records and your health monitoring arrangements where required.
Outdated safety data sheets are the most common finding. Followed closely by incompatible chemicals stored together, missing or illegible labels on decanted products, inadequate ventilation in chemical use areas and incomplete risk assessments.
These are not trivial issues. Chemical incidents can cause burns, poisoning, fires and explosions. Chronic exposure to certain chemicals causes cancer, organ damage and respiratory disease. Getting chemical management right protects people from real harm.
You receive a detailed report with findings prioritised by risk. Each finding includes specific recommendations and references to the relevant legislation, codes of practice and Australian standards.
If the audit identifies airborne chemical exposure concerns, we can follow up with air quality monitoring to quantify actual worker exposures. For workplaces with significant chemical risks, developing a health and hygiene management plan provides a structured approach to ongoing management.
Our audit service is particularly valuable for manufacturing, laboratories, workshops, cleaning operations, agricultural businesses and any workplace that handles a significant chemical inventory. Pair it with a risk register review for a thorough assessment.
The Safety Data Sheet register is often the weakest link in chemical management. We regularly find registers with SDS documents 10 or more years old, chemicals that have been changed by the manufacturer with significantly different hazard classifications than the version on file, and products used on site with no SDS at all.
A current, accurate SDS register is not just a compliance requirement. It is the primary reference document workers and emergency responders use when something goes wrong. An outdated SDS can lead to incorrect first aid treatment, wrong PPE selection and missed regulatory requirements for storage, handling or disposal.
We help businesses establish and maintain SDS registers that are always current. This includes processes for checking new chemical purchases against the register, requesting updated SDS from suppliers when documents expire and ensuring that site level access to SDS matches what workers actually need on the job.
For businesses with large chemical inventories, chemical management software can automate many of these tasks. We help businesses evaluate and implement software solutions that integrate SDS management, risk assessment documentation, chemical inventories and regulatory reporting into a single system.
Under the WHS Regulations, a hazardous chemical is any substance, mixture or article that satisfies the criteria of one or more hazard classes under the GHS (Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals). This covers chemicals that are toxic, flammable, corrosive, explosive, environmentally hazardous and many other categories. If a chemical has a Safety Data Sheet, it is almost certainly classified as hazardous.
Under Australian WHS Regulations, manufacturers and importers must review SDS at least every 5 years. As a user, you should have the most current version of the SDS for each chemical you use. Older versions may contain outdated hazard classifications, incorrect exposure standards or superseded first aid information.
Yes. The WHS Regulations require PCBUs to obtain a Safety Data Sheet for each hazardous chemical used at the workplace and to ensure it is readily accessible to workers who use, handle, store or dispose of the chemical. Consumer use products like cleaning products purchased from retail outlets are exempt if used in the same quantities as a household consumer would use them.
GHS labelling requires the product name, supplier details, hazard pictograms, signal word (Danger or Warning), hazard statements describing the nature of the hazard, and precautionary statements for safe handling, storage, disposal and first aid. Labels must be in English and must remain legible. Decanted products must be labelled with the same information as the original container.
Compatible chemicals must be stored separately to prevent dangerous reactions. Flammable liquids have specific storage quantity limits before a dangerous goods licence is required. Chemicals must be stored in appropriate containers with adequate bunding, ventilation and access controls. AS 3780 provides guidance on the storage of dangerous goods, and we help businesses implement compliant storage arrangements.