A safety data sheet is a hazard-communication document in the sixteen-section format set by the Globally Harmonized System and required under OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard. It tells a laboratory how to handle, store, spill-manage and dispose of a substance. It does not establish what the substance is or how pure a lot is; that is the certificate's job.
- The sixteen-section format is the UN GHS layout, adopted in the United States by OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200.
- Appendix D makes sections 1 to 11 and 16 mandatory; sections 12 to 15 are optional under the US rule because other agencies regulate those subjects.
- A safety data sheet describes a substance and carries no lot number or test result; the certificate of analysis describes a lot.
- Section 3 should name the substance, its CAS number and its counterion, and should agree with the certificate.
- Not classified in section 2 means no data met a hazard criterion, not that data showed the absence of hazard.
Two documents that get confused
A research peptide arrives with two kinds of paperwork, and buyers routinely ask one to do the other's job. The certificate of analysis describes a lot: what the material was found to be, how pure, in what quantity, tested when and by whom. The safety data sheet describes a substance: what hazards it presents, how to handle and store it, what to do if it is spilled or someone is exposed, and how to dispose of it. The certificate changes with every lot. The safety data sheet changes only when the hazard information does.
The confusion runs in both directions. Some buyers treat a safety data sheet as proof that a supplier is serious, when it is a document any supplier can produce for any substance in an afternoon. Others dismiss it because most of its sections, for a research peptide, say that no data are available, which reads like a shrug. Neither reading is right. The sheet is a legal instrument with a fixed format, its blanks are a required kind of honesty, and its value to a laboratory is real but narrow. This page walks the format and says what each part is for. Both documents should travel with the material and both should be filed with the lot on receipt, because the question each answers tends to be asked long after the parcel was opened.
Where the format comes from
The sixteen-section layout is the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals, usually written GHS, adopted into United States law by OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard at 29 CFR 1910.1200. The standard's stated purpose is that the hazards of all chemicals produced or imported are classified and that the classification is transmitted to employers and employees, and it names the safety data sheet as one of the two vehicles for that transmission, the other being the label. Appendix D to the standard sets the minimum information for each section.
Appendix D also settles a question that trips people up: which sections are mandatory. Under OSHA's rule, sections 1 through 11 and section 16 must be completed, and every subheading within them must either carry information or state clearly that none is available. Sections 12 through 15, which cover ecological information, disposal, transport and regulatory information, may be included but are not required under the United States standard, because those subjects are regulated by other agencies. A sheet that leaves them thin is compliant. A sheet that leaves section 2 or section 8 thin is not.
The format is deliberately identical across every substance and every supplier so that a person handling an unfamiliar material knows where to look without reading the whole document. Section 4 is always first aid. Section 8 is always exposure controls. The consistency is the point, and a supplier that rearranges or renumbers sections has produced something that is not a safety data sheet under the standard.
Sections 1 to 8: identity, hazards and handling
The first eight sections carry nearly everything a laboratory will actually use.
| Section | Heading | What a laboratory reads it for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Identification | Product name, supplier identity and contact, recommended use and restrictions. For a research peptide the restriction line is where research-use-only belongs. |
| 2 | Hazard(s) identification | GHS classification, signal word, pictograms and hazard statements. Often "not classified" for a lyophilized peptide, which is a finding, not an omission. |
| 3 | Composition / information on ingredients | Chemical name, synonyms, CAS number where one exists, and the concentration of components, including the counterion. |
| 4 | First-aid measures | What to do after accidental exposure by each route, and symptoms to expect. Generic for most peptides because specific data are absent. |
| 5 | Fire-fighting measures | Suitable extinguishing media and hazards from combustion. A dried peptide is an organic solid and burns like one. |
| 6 | Accidental release measures | Containment and clean-up of a spill, and protective equipment for the person doing it. |
| 7 | Handling and storage | Safe handling practices and storage conditions, including incompatibilities. The place storage temperature and light sensitivity are stated. |
| 8 | Exposure controls / personal protection | Occupational exposure limits where any exist, engineering controls, and personal protective equipment. |
Section 3 deserves a second look because it overlaps with the identity documentation and is where the two documents can contradict each other. The composition section should name the substance, give its CAS number if it has one, and state the counterion and its proportion, since an acetate or trifluoroacetate salt is a mixture for the purposes of hazard classification. A safety data sheet whose section 3 names a different salt from the certificate, or omits the counterion entirely, has been written for a different material or written carelessly. The CAS number guide covers how to check the identifier that appears here.
Sections 9 to 11: properties, reactivity and toxicology
Section 9, physical and chemical properties, lists appearance, odour, melting point, solubility, pH and the rest of the standard physical panel. For a lyophilized peptide most of the panel is either a simple statement, a white to off-white solid, soluble in water, or a blank marked not available, because a decomposition temperature or a partition coefficient has rarely been measured for a research sequence. That is expected. What should be present is the appearance and the water solubility, because those are the two properties a laboratory checks against the vial in front of it.
Section 10, stability and reactivity, states the conditions to avoid and the incompatible materials. For a peptide the entries are usually heat, moisture, strong oxidisers and strong acids or bases, and the hazardous decomposition products are the oxides of carbon and nitrogen. Section 11, toxicological information, is the section most likely to be almost empty. It requires the routes of exposure, acute effects, and any available data on irritation, sensitisation, carcinogenicity and reproductive toxicity. For the great majority of research peptides those data do not exist, and the standard requires the sheet to say so rather than guess.
This is where a buyer's instinct goes wrong. A section 11 full of not-available lines looks like the supplier has not done its work. In fact the supplier has done exactly what the standard requires, which is to report the absence of data rather than invent it. A sheet that fills section 11 with confident toxicological figures for an obscure research sequence has taken them from somewhere, and a laboratory should ask where. The honest sheet is the sparse one.
Sections 12 to 16: the optional four and the last one
Sections 12 through 15 cover ecological information, disposal considerations, transport information and regulatory information. Under the United States standard they are optional because each subject belongs to another regulator: environmental effects to the EPA, transport classification to the Department of Transportation and the international carriers, disposal to state and local waste rules. Many suppliers include them anyway, and for a laboratory the disposal section is worth reading even when it says only that the material should be handled as chemical waste according to local regulation, because it confirms the material has no special disposal route.
Section 14, transport, is the one that occasionally carries something substantive. A dried research peptide is not a dangerous good under the transport codes and ships as ordinary freight, and section 14 should say so. A supplier that ships peptides in solution, which is uncommon and usually unwise for stability reasons, might have a different answer depending on the solvent. Section 15 typically notes the status of the substance under the Toxic Substances Control Act inventory and similar registers, which for a research peptide is usually that it is not listed and is exempt as a research and development substance.
Section 16, other information, is mandatory and is where the revision date and version number live. That date is the only freshness signal on the document. A safety data sheet from 2019 is not wrong because it is old, since hazard information changes rarely, but a laboratory keeping a file of sheets should know which version it holds and whether the supplier has issued a later one. A supplier that dates its sheets and keeps prior versions is doing the minimum; one whose sheet carries no date has left the reader unable to tell which one it is.
What a safety data sheet cannot tell you
Three things, and each is asked of the document regularly.
It cannot tell you what is in the vial. A safety data sheet is written for a substance, and the same sheet accompanies every lot of that substance the supplier ever sells. It contains no test result and no lot number. The evidence that a particular lot is the named substance, at the stated purity, is the certificate of analysis for that lot, read against the issuing laboratory's own records. The Verify a COA page covers how to do that.
It cannot tell you the material is safe. The sheet classifies known hazards, and for most research peptides the classification is that the hazards are not known, which is a different statement. Not classified means no data met the criteria for a hazard class, not that data showed the absence of one. A laboratory handles an unclassified research peptide with the same engineering controls and protective equipment it would use for any powder of unknown toxicity, and the sheet's section 8 will usually say as much.
And it cannot tell you what the substance is for. Section 1 carries a recommended-use line and a restrictions-on-use line, and for a research peptide the second is where the sheet states that the material is for laboratory research and not for any other purpose. Nothing else in the sixteen sections describes a use, and a sheet that did would be describing something the standard was not written to cover.
Reading the sheet against the vial
A safety data sheet is only useful if it describes the material in front of you, and the quickest way to find out is to read four of its sections against three other things: the vial, the certificate and the invoice.
Section 1 against the invoice. The supplier named in section 1 should be the supplier you bought from, with a working address and a telephone number. A sheet that names a different company is a manufacturer's sheet passed along, which is acceptable if the supplier says so and a problem if it does not.
Section 3 against the certificate. The substance name, the CAS number and the counterion in section 3 should agree with the certificate for the lot. A sheet that names the free peptide while the certificate reports a trifluoroacetate salt has been written for a different material, or written once for the whole catalog.
Section 9 against the vial. Appearance and solubility are the two physical properties a laboratory can check at the bench without an instrument. A sheet that describes a white lyophilized solid should be describing a white lyophilized solid, and a vial that does not match the description has a question attached to it before the seal is broken.
Section 7 against your own storage. The storage conditions in section 7 are the supplier's statement of how the material should be kept, and the place to check whether your refrigerator, desiccator or freezer matches what the supplier assumed.
The failure mode all four catch is the generic sheet: one document, titled Peptide, issued for every product in a catalog with the name changed and nothing else. It satisfies the format and describes nothing. A sheet whose section 3 does not name the specific substance and its counterion was not written for the vial it came with, and everything else in it should be read as boilerplate until the supplier produces one that was.
How the safety data sheet fits the record here
Every family in the LabFirst catalog is supplied with a safety data sheet in the sixteen-section format, with section 1 carrying the research-use restriction, section 3 naming the substance, its CAS number where one exists and its counterion, and section 16 carrying the revision date. The sheet is one document among several: the product record carries the identity and specification fields, the certificate carries the lot's analytical results, and the compliance page states what LabFirst is and is not. None of them is a substitute for the others, and a buyer who reads all three knows what the material is, what a given lot was found to be, and how to handle it.
The safety data sheet describes handling. It does not describe use. FOR LABORATORY AND IN-VITRO RESEARCH USE ONLY. NOT FOR HUMAN OR ANIMAL CONSUMPTION. The sheet exists so that a laboratory can store, handle and dispose of a research material safely, and for no other reason.
Common questions
Which sections of a safety data sheet are mandatory?
Why does a peptide SDS say no data available so often?
Does a safety data sheet prove a peptide's identity or purity?
Does not classified in section 2 mean the peptide is safe?
How do I know if I have the current version of a peptide SDS?
Sources
- OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.1200, Hazard Communication. The standard that requires the safety data sheet, states its purpose, and adopts the GHS classification and format into United States law.
- OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.1200 Appendix D, Safety Data Sheets (Mandatory). The minimum information for each of the sixteen sections, and the rule that sections 1 to 11 and 16 are required while 12 to 15 are optional.
- CAS, CAS REGISTRY: what is a CAS Registry Number. Background for the identifier that section 3 of a sheet is expected to carry.
- FDA / ICH Q6B, Specifications: Test Procedures and Acceptance Criteria for Biotechnological/Biological Products. The framework for identity, purity and quantity as lot-level specifications, which is what a safety data sheet does not carry and a certificate does.