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Purchase21447		#1 Posted : 25 November 2009 14:42:48(UTC)
Rank: Forum user		Hi All, just a quickie about good Old MSDS's, I am currently trying to find out how long you should keep a Superseded version (one of your own and 3rd Party)after it has been superseded. currently I am finding it difficult to find anything for the UK how ever the In the states you need to keep records of them for 30 Years! any advice on this would be greatly appreciated cheers Wayne
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RayRapp		#2 Posted : 25 November 2009 19:56:22(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		Wayne To be perfectly honest I do not know of any guidance for keeping spent MSDS, except that generally under ISO 9001 retention of documents, which I would be surprised if it included MSDS. Why would you want to keep old MSDS, let alone for thirty years mystifies me? Surely, once they have been superceded and the COSHH Assessment amended, if necessary, they are no use to anyone. Ray
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GeoffB4		#3 Posted : 25 November 2009 20:53:14(UTC)
Rank: Forum user		The symptoms of exposure in the past may have changed with a changed substance composition and in your investigation for the long term poor health effects recently occurring in the factory this needs to be reviewed. To do that you might need to see the original MSDS? PS: Contributors to this forum fought long and hard to get a spell checker but I see it has now been removed. Why?
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RayRapp		#4 Posted : 26 November 2009 09:17:19(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		Well said Geoff. On the plus side, I think my spulling is improvin.
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RayRapp		#5 Posted : 26 November 2009 16:43:36(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		Geoff I can understand why you might keep a copy of the COSHH Assessment for the purpose you describe, but surely, keeping the MSDS as well is OTT. Ray
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Barrie(Badger)Etter		#6 Posted : 26 November 2009 17:02:48(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		Taking Geoff's comment about affected health, for personnel record (under coshh I beleive - will corrected stasnd) there's a requirement to retain records for forty years. So if a member of personnel have been in contact with a substance then the msds should be copied to their file. therefore the answer would be 40 years. Skulling inpurving bat nat grommer! Badger Weekends here off to the set to put my head down.
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RayRapp		#7 Posted : 26 November 2009 18:25:28(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		Barrie Thanks for the input - 40 years now! Anyone like to top that?
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GeoffB4		#8 Posted : 26 November 2009 20:01:55(UTC)
Rank: Forum user		personelly i wont care in 40 yeers tyme. Mice to heer from you Ray.
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redken		#9 Posted : 27 November 2009 11:57:22(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		I have just had an updated MSDS from one of the largest oil comapnies, the accompanying letter says: "destroy any old copies that you may have on file and replace it with the enclosed"
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RayRapp		#10 Posted : 27 November 2009 12:36:13(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		Ahhh, thanks Redken, the plot thickens. I checked 2002 COSHH regs and other related documentation and found nothing about the retention of MSDS. Suggest this is nothing more than an urbam myth.
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broadvalley		#11 Posted : 27 November 2009 13:22:30(UTC)
Rank: Forum user		MSDS for a substance would only be updated if new information becomes available about it. No point in keeping a superceded MSDS since chances are some of the information is now known to be incorrect. After all it is always going to be the same substance.
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ang		#12 Posted : 27 November 2009 14:03:31(UTC)
Rank: Forum user		I generally keep ALL controlled documents for 3 years - more for traceability through 9001 so if you make any changes you can see what the changes where and who amended them. This goes for anything we class as a controlled document. To summarise, I gues you set your on policy. It's only medical records or records relating to health surveillance that is required to be kept for 40 years together with employee liability insurance. Ang.
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PJW74		#13 Posted : 27 November 2009 14:21:05(UTC)
Rank: New forum user		If it's superseded no requirement to keep at all(!) Shred/recycle etc as approriate!
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Purchase21447		#14 Posted : 27 November 2009 15:10:53(UTC)
Rank: Forum user		thanks for all your response!! I am glad it isnt only me that couldnt find anything stating 30 years plus(thought i was going a bit daft) currently through ISO we are keeping records for 5 to 10 for MSDS's possibly will back up archive copies in Digital media (keep them for ever) then everyone may be happy cheers again everyone Wayne
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Canopener		#15 Posted : 28 November 2009 17:49:16(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		To be honest until I red this thread I wouldn't have dreamed of keeping an old MSDS. And to be honest I don't think I will now! Am I the only one to find that some are next to useless?
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Canopener		#16 Posted : 28 November 2009 17:50:37(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		Opopps, I meant "read"!
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RayRapp		#17 Posted : 28 November 2009 20:22:05(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		No worries Phil, we know you are dislexic. MSDS do vary in quality from one supplier to another. The other day I had to write a COSHH assessment for some basic paint. The MSDS was ten pages long! This was for a substance that was so harmless you could swim in it. Moreover, for the basic information needed I had to keep scrolling up and down the MSDS. Phew, dammned hard work. Another very well known provider of online COSHH asessments also provides loads of pages with pictorals even for low risk substances. Would like to see some common sense prevail and adopt the 'less is more' philosophy and not just for COSHH.
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Barrie(Badger)Etter		#18 Posted : 29 November 2009 08:23:16(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user		Agree with Ray & Phil, the msds's are useless some times then you get the foreign ones that indicate there's substances contained therein which should up the the harmful rating to say toxic due to that country's heath dept rating carcengens and et al within it. I wonder how much more variation there will be the GHS system? Badger
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