Converting MSDS to GHS Format

Converting MSDS to GHS Format

This service has been discontinued by GTS. We are currently only offering SDS translation services.

GTS Translation Services is the leading company for translation of fully compliant Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), in accordance with country specific regulations. If your company is manufacturing and/or selling chemical products worldwide, we can help you adapt your MSDS and chemical labeling to the upcoming GHS requirements. GHS is becoming the worldwide standard and is used in Europe, Canada and the USA, as well as many other countries worldwide. We can author your MSDS to comply with these standards and translate MSDS to any language to ensure compliance. Clients include Sunoco, Henkel, SAP, Vishay, Siemens and Rust-Oleum.

The worldwide chemical industry has always had an issue with the consistency of chemical classification between countries. There were many different regulations on hazard classification used in different countries. In response to this disparity, the United Nations (UN) adopted the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), an international system for classifying and labeling hazardous substances.

GHS ensures that all chemicals are classified the same regardless of the country handling the chemicals. We advise methods for the authoring of MSDS material safety data sheets and product labels by specifying rules and regulations on hazardous substances at national, regional and worldwide levels. We create a GHS-compliant MSDS by implementing a combination of building blocks, pictograms, signal words, hazard codes and precautionary statements specific to the country requirements.

The Classification, Labeling and Packaging (CLP) regulation introduces the UN Globally Harmonized System as it will apply in Europe. Pure substances must be classified and labelled according to the CLP Regulation as of 1st December 2010, and mixtures must comply by 1st June 2015.  Safety data sheets must show both the “old” and “new” classifications in the transition period until June 2015, after which just the “new” GHS classifications are required. Similar transition deadlines affect many other countries worldwide although with varying dates of compliance, some of which such as China and New Zealand are already using GHS.

You may be producing new products, and the idea of producing a GHS compliant MSDS may be a regulatory nightmare. Even without a current MSDS, a GHS compliant MSDS can be authored, using the product composition information to provide country specific classifications.

Call us if you need help with your GHS compliance and to translate your MSDS to other languages. We have translated hundreds of MSDS to Spanish, German, Italian, French, French Canadian, Chinese and Japanese.