Workplace Label Generator

Does this tool classify my chemical?

No. It takes the classification from Section 2 of the safety data sheet, as H-codes, and looks up the label elements that the chosen source assigns to each one. If the classification on the SDS is wrong, the label will be wrong too.

What must a US workplace label show?

29 CFR 1910.1200(f)(6) gives the employer two options. One is the information required on labels for shipped containers under paragraphs (f)(1)(i) through (v). The other is the product identifier and "words, pictures, symbols, or combination thereof, which provide at least general information regarding the hazards of the chemicals". The second option relies on the other information immediately available to employees under the hazard communication program. Paragraph (f)(10) requires workplace labels to be legible and in English.

What must a work site label contain in Alberta?

Section 394.1 of Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Code defines a work site label as one that contains three things: a product identifier identical to the one on the safety data sheet, information for the safe handling of the product, and a reference to the safety data sheet. That is why, for Canada, the tool always prints the SDS line and asks for a precautionary statement or a safe-handling line. Other provinces and territories set their own rules; this page quotes Alberta's only.

Why does the tool ask me for a category?

Some H-codes are shared by hazard categories that carry different label elements. H228 is used for Flammable solids Category 1, with the signal word "Danger", and for Category 2, with "Warning". The code alone does not say which applies, so the tool asks for the category given in Section 2 of the SDS.

Why is the exclamation mark missing, or still there, next to the skull and crossbones?

UN GHS Rev.10, 1.4.10.5.3.1 (a), says "if the skull and crossbones applies, the exclamation mark should not appear". Appendix C of 29 CFR 1910.1200 is narrower: under C.2.1.2 the exclamation mark "shall not appear where it is used for acute toxicity". The Hazardous Products Regulations, s. 3.6(3)(a), limit the rule to acute toxicity in the same way. So for a product with the skull and crossbones that is also a skin irritant, the generic GHS label drops the exclamation mark, and the US and Canadian labels keep it for the skin irritation. The tool lists each rule it applied under "How the label elements were chosen".

Can I add environmental hazards?

For the United States, Appendix C has no environmental hazard class. Its C.3.1 limits supplementary information on the label "to when it provides further detail and does not contradict or cast doubt on the validity of the standardized hazard information". For Canada, WHMIS did not adopt the environmental hazard classes, and CCOHS notes that suppliers "may voluntarily choose to disclose these hazards on labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDSs)". In both cases the option is off by default. When you turn it on, the tool adds the UN GHS Rev.10 pictogram and hazard statements with no signal word. On a Canadian label, they are printed in a separate "Supplementary information" box.

Is UN GHS Rev.10 the current edition?

No. Rev.11 is the current edition of the UN GHS. The generic mode uses Rev.10 because that is the edition the tool's label elements were read from.

A product identifier that differs from the SDS. Alberta's definition requires a product identifier "identical to that found on the safety data sheet". Copy it from the SDS instead of using a shorter name.

Guessing the category of a shared code. H228, H272 and a few other codes do not determine the label on their own. Take the category from Section 2 of the SDS.

Leaving the source's instruction on the label. Some hazard statements carry an instruction to the label writer, such as "(state route of exposure if no other routes of exposure cause the hazard)". That instruction is not label text. Fill in the route, organs or effect from the SDS, or leave the field blank and the bracket is left off.

Using the combustible-dust bracket text for every dust. Appendix C, C.4.31, says "Text in square brackets may be used when the material can only create a combustible dust hazard due to the creation of small particles during the processing or handling of the chemical." Leave that option off unless this applies.

Using the generic Rev.10 label for a US or Canadian workplace. The three modes read different sources, and the same codes can give a different label: the precedence rules differ, and so does the wording (Appendix C prints "vapor" where UN GHS Rev.10 and the Canadian label elements print "vapour"). Choose the jurisdiction where the label will be used.