Swiss Federal Office of Public Health updates safety data sheet guide for synthetic nanomaterials

(Nanowerk News) The guide is designed to help manufacturers correctly complete the safety data sheet for nanomaterials, thus improving the flow of information along the supply chain.
The safety data sheet (SDS) plays a key role in the transmission of safety-relevant information along the supply chain. It allows occupational users of raw materials, intermediate and end products to identify potential risks and implement the necessary precautionary measures. The same applies to synthetic nanomaterials.
Filling in the safety data sheet correctly
The guide for synthetic nanomaterials (pdf) supplements the existing general guide for "The safety data sheet in Switzerland". It is designed to help identify the particularly relevant additional information and to correctly fill in the safety data sheets for nanomaterials.
The guide explicitly deals with manufactured and hence "synthetic" nanomaterials; naturally occurring nanomaterials are not considered.
Second version of the guidelines
The first version of the nano-SDS guidelines (December 2010) has been updated with new scientific developments and new international definitions. The second version (April 2012) has improved wording and is based on the nanomaterial definition recommended by the EU commission 2011/696/EU on 20.10.2011, which considers the particle size distribution. Furthermore this version has taken into consideration the latest standard and threshold values for maximal occupational workplace concentrations - the values have been integrated in the two SDS examples (SUVA standard values 2012). The two SDS examples have been separated from the main text and the accompanying leaflet summarizes the most important content of the guidelines on three pages.
Additional Material
Two examples for the guidelines (pdf)
Leaflet (pdf)
Source: Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH)