I remember several years ago attending a BOHS conference and listening to a representative from a major oil and chemical producer on REACH. She commented that for some of their substances they would have around 500 Exposure Scenarios! In my opinion this is one of the nonsenses of REACH. REACH is only really concerned with individual substances, whereas the reality in my world is that I am almost always dealing with mixtures, and mixtures that are constantly changing as work progresses, chemicals are mixed, reacted, diluted, contaminated, etc. etc. Consider a product with, say, ten different constituents, each of which will have its own Exposure Scenarios for the uses of the individual substance in the mixture. Given the poor standard of many safety data sheets (I once reviewed 50 for a client and only one was correct in all respects.) what chance does the end user, who may be the owner of a small car body repair shop with a paint spray booth, have of understanding the paperwork? I have seen a "generic exposure scenario" produced by a pan-European chemical society that I could not understand, so what chance have SMEs. In any case, why bother with the Exposure Scenarios? Just take a look at section 6-1 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which requires the supplier of a product to provide advice so that the end user can use the product safely for the purpose for which it was supplied. I have argued that in 1974 we introduced legislation that, for the end user, was superior to REACH! If anyone wants more on the just PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you a handout for the talk I have given to several IOSH branches on this (COSHH, CHIP, REACH and CLP). Chris

In some company, they used to convert the MSDS into a 2 pages of ducument called WIC (work-floor instruction card). Don't know much on the details.

The rules are = brevity is not allowed!