Hazard data and labels

When a row is linked to our database, it picks up the chemical's GHS pictograms, signal word, H statements, P statements and storage class. Open the detail drawer and you see the hazard card, the storage rules and any incompatible chemicals in the same location. You do not type any of it in. If a record changes when we refresh the data, it changes for every row linked to it.

H and P codes come with the standard statement wording. That wording is permitted to be reproduced, because it is laid down in the classification rules. It is also what you will recognise from a supplier's label: "Causes severe skin burns and eye damage" is the same sentence wherever you read it.

Hazard data comes from two public sources: PubChem and the ECHA C&L inventory. The source and the retrieval date are stored with each hazard record. Our public chemical pages show them too, so you can see what a page is based on and how old it is.

We do not copy CLEAPSS Hazcard text, SSERC text or supplier data sheet prose. Storage, deterioration and disposal notes are written in our own words.

Classification follows fixed rules applied to the sourced H codes. A chemical is held back as an unpublished draft where the data is uncertain, and the record never claims a person has reviewed it unless a person has. We have not yet appointed a named chemist reviewer, and we would prefer to tell you that than imply otherwise.

A safety data sheet describes one supplier's product, at one concentration, at the date it was written. Under UK REACH, suppliers must provide one no later than the first supply of a hazardous substance or mixture, and must update it when new information on hazards or risk management emerges, sending the update to anyone they supplied in the previous 12 months. HSE is clear that a good data sheet does not substitute for carrying out and recording a COSHH risk assessment.

The register is neither of those things. It holds structured data about the substance, which lets it do what a PDF cannot: filter a store to everything carrying the flame pictogram, compare storage classes across a shelf, or tell you that a location now holds an oxidiser and a flammable. If you are looking for software that files and version-controls every supplier's data sheet, the register does not do that. The notes field on a row can hold a reference to where you keep them.

Every chemical page carries the same reminder: guidance only, check your own risk assessment and your supplier's safety data sheet.

Each chemical has one working storage class: flammable, oxidiser, acid, alkali, toxic, corrosive or general. These drive the small coloured chip and left border on register rows, and each colour is always paired with a word, so nothing depends on colour alone.

The class is a working tool for arranging a store. Real chemicals can fit more than one description, so a rule decides which comes first, and the chemical's own incompatibles are listed separately. Our storage classes guide explains how they work and where they can mislead.

When a bottle is decanted into a smaller container, the original label does not come with it. The register generates GHS container labels from its hazard data: name, pictograms, signal word and statements. You can also print a replacement when an original label is failing.

A label printed from the register is only as true as the row behind it. For a working solution, enter the concentration you actually made, then check that the hazards shown are appropriate for that dilution. Check against your supplier's data sheet and your own risk assessment before the label goes on the bottle.

Barcode labels use Code 128 and carry the row's label number. Their job is to tie a physical bottle to a register row, so scanning during a stock check finds the right one out of three similar bottles.

Both label types print to A4 label sheets on an ordinary office printer, or to Brother and Dymo label printers. Many stores start with A4 sheets and add a small thermal printer only if they find they are printing often.

GB CLP has nine pictograms, set in a diamond with a red border on a white background. Staff who have worked with stores for a long time may remember the older orange square symbols, and these can still turn up on old stock. An old orange label does not mean a bottle is harmless, and it is often a useful clue that the contents deserve a closer look. Our pictogram guide explains each symbol in plain terms, and is a useful thing to give new staff.

The same data feeds the rest of the register. Alerts use storage classes and incompatibilities. The COSHH hazardous substances register uses the hazard statements. Disposal requests carry the hazard flags and EWC codes that a carrier needs to see. The data is entered once and used everywhere, so a correction reaches all of those places at the same time.