Accidents happen, even in the most safety-conscious food manufacturing facilities. When one happens involving hazardous substances, it is critical to respond quickly with the right actions. But that's not always easily done if you aren't sure which chemicals are involved, how to identify their characteristics, or what action to take.
Safety data sheets (SDSs) provide this essential information, but, in many facilities, these forms may be out of date, kept in hard to locate binders, or on the far end of the plant floor. The delay in accessing this information can increase the risk of injury to employees and damage to the property.
That's why forward-thinking food manufacturing companies are implementing digital safety management systems (SMS), which include digital safety data sheets.
Complications of managing traditional SDS binders
Every food manufacturer should be familiar with the thick safety data sheet binders since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires manufacturers to have safety data sheets with information on the use, hazards, and protective measures for every chemical used in their facilities.
"An SDS states if a chemical is hazardous or flammable or creates chronic or acute toxicity," explains Kera Kozlowsky, Director of Operations at HSI. "Every piece of information that you need to know about this chemical or product is on this sheet so it can be rapidly accessed in an emergency or accident." SDSs aren't just for agents used in the food manufacturing process, she adds. "Cleaning products, office products, even dry erase markers need an SDS."
A typical binder could store hundreds of SDSs. When a manufacturer changes the formulation or hazard of a product, they send a new safety data sheet. Any food manufacturer that uses the product needs to add it to every binder in their facility to stay up-to-date.
However, the truth is that updates don't always happen, Kozlowsky states. "When we go on-site and take an inventory for the first time, we find that almost all customers are out of compliance and, on average, 60% of their SDSs aren't accurate. Over the years, they've brought chemicals on the premises that they don't have an SDS for, they've stopped using chemicals that are still in the SDS binder, or they haven't swapped out an old data sheet for an updated one."
There is no doubt that maintaining the binders is an administrative headache. But the cost of not keeping them up-to-date presents an even greater risk if an employee or visitor comes into contact with a substance and no one can locate the correct SDS swiftly to know if the substance is harmful or what treatment to provide.
Digital SDSs increase safety and efficiency
Digital SDSs make it easier and faster to know what chemicals are on-site and how to handle an emergency, Kozlowsky says. Safety data sheets are uploaded online into a safety management system, making them easily accessible online through a website or portal. Employees can quickly look up the SDS from their mobile device, tablet, or laptop from wherever they are, allowing them to respond swiftly with the right action. She adds that this ability is especially critical when the right move might not be intuitive.
Having worked in the chemical management field for over 25 years, Kozlowsky has seen and heard just about everything. Upon recounting a story about a food manufacturing employee who fell into a vat of a chemical, she recalls that the facility "had to find out how to treat him very quickly. Your automatic instinct might be to wash him off, but you might not want to mix water with the chemical. You might not want to induce vomiting if he aspirated a particular chemical."
Using their digital SDS system — including its search function to scroll through the specific chemical's 14-page SDS document to pinpoint the needed safety information — the plant safety team identified and rapidly provided the prescribed treatment.
Because digital SDSs are online, they're portable. Both on-site and off-site employees have easy access to the information. This access can be critical if any incident requires evacuating the facility or results in an employee going to the hospital. Plant management and emergency medical professionals can all have the SDS information at their fingertips through their mobile devices, speeding the response of correct actions.
One of the most important aspects of digital SDSs is that they can be automatically updated, Kozlowsky mentions. "When you use a digital SDS process that's part of a safety management system like HSI, we're proactively updating them. When there's a new revision out there, we put that into your system so you're always up-to-date and in compliance."
Benefits of digital SDSs beyond emergencies
Having updated, easily accessible safety data sheets is critical, not just for urgent needs. Manufacturers are required to keep a history of every chemical they've had on-site for 30 years and prove that information was available, Kozlowsky indicates. Digital safety data sheets simplify the process without requiring physical storage space.
Additionally, digital SDSs make it easy to access information for OSHA inspections and reporting. Employees working in the field can look up a chemical the moment they need to wherever they are. Even creating labeling for a secondary container of products is simpler and less prone to error when printing digital safety data sheets.
With all of the demands food manufacturers face, it's easy to see how maintaining SDS compliance can get lost in the shuffle, Kozlowsky says. "But when there is an emergency and leaders realize just how unprepared they are, digital SDSs become something they vitally want to implement."
For food manufacturers who want to implement a digital safety data sheet management solution, HSI provides them with the support, knowledge, and technology to manage thousands of chemicals so they can keep their employees and facility safe.