In accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), employers shall maintain any safety data sheets that are received with incoming shipments of hazardous chemicals, and ensure that they are readily accessible during each work shift to employees when they are in their work areas. Safety Data Sheets are accessible as follows:
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Use the inventory module of the EHSA safety management system for non-lab inventories (e.g., building trades, art, theatre, and custodial chemicals.)
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Contacting Environmental Health and Safety between the hours of 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday at 773.702.9999 or safety@uchicago.edu.
- Accessing online through the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCINFO) Academic Support Program. The CCINFO offers comprehensive chemical hazard information resources, including ChemInfo sheets and manufacturer SDSs.
Environmental Health and Safety Assistant (EHSA)
Safety Data Sheets (SDS) for all chemicals shall be entered and maintained in the EHSA inventory module.
While the Office of Research Safety (ORS) assigns a chemical permit to each Principal Investigator, EHS links users to EHS-CHEM Permits. Guide to Non-Lab Chemical Inventory Management.
For guidance on accessing, entering, and managing SDS in EHSA, please refer to the following guidance documents:
- Safety Data Sheet Access;
- Entering; and
- Managing.
For additional EHSA chemical inventory questions, please contact the following:
- ORS at researchsafety@uchicago.edu for all lab inquiries
- EHS at safety@uchicago.edu for all non-lab inquiries.
CCINFO on the Internet
The University of Chicago has established an account with the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCINFO) Academic Support Program. Note: This collection has been set up to only allow access from University of Chicago computers. The CCINFO Academic Support Program provides access to the following collections:
- MSDS;
- CHEMINFO;
- CHEMpendium;
- RTECS;
- OSH References;
- Canadian enviroOSH Legislation plus Standards; and
- Additional Resources.
Accessing CCINFO
To access:
- Go to CCINFO;
- Choose collection from Web Collections;
- Type chemical name and click search; and
- Choose correct product and click blue link to open material safety data sheet.
Note: If you are prompted to enter a username and password, then the computer in use is not associated with the proper UChicago IP range and/or domain name.
Linked Policies
In accordance with the Hazard Communication policy and the policy addressing the Emergency Planning Community Right-to-Know Act, specific responsibilities are outlined for maintaining the accuracy and accessibility of chemical inventory and Safety Data Sheets (SDS). This includes ensuring that the most recent SDS are uploaded and accessible to employees. For comprehensive guidelines on these duties, please refer to the Hazard Communication policy and supporting resources.
Guidance Documents
Other SDS Sites
Sigma, Aldrich, Fluka, Supelco, RdH-Lab
Acros Chemicals, Fisher Scientific, Curtin Matheson Scientific
VWR Scientific Products
Vermont Safety Information Resources Inc.
Bio-Rad Laboratories
Health Canada
Praxair
CDMS Agro-Chemical Database