When Is a Safety Data Sheet Required? Exemptions, Penalties, and EPCRA

Under OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (29 CFR 1910.1200), a Safety Data Sheet is required for every hazardous chemical that is manufactured, imported, distributed, or used in a workplace. Chemical manufacturers and importers must prepare an SDS before a product ships, distributors must pass the current version along to their commercial customers, and employers must keep an SDS on hand and accessible for every hazardous chemical their workers could encounter. The Hazard Communication Standard was the second most frequently cited OSHA standard in fiscal year 2024, so knowing exactly when the requirement kicks in matters.¹

Which Chemicals Trigger the Requirement

An SDS is required for any chemical classified as hazardous under the Hazard Communication Standard. A chemical earns that classification when it poses a physical hazard, a health hazard, or both. Physical hazards cover things like flammability, explosivity, and reactivity. Health hazards cover chemicals that cause adverse effects on exposure, from skin irritation and organ damage to cancer.² Classification is done through scientific evaluation, not guesswork.

Mixtures follow their own math. A mixture triggers classification when it contains a hazardous ingredient above a set concentration threshold. For most health hazards, including acute toxicity, skin irritation, and eye damage, the cut-off is 1% by weight. For carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, germ cell mutagens, and respiratory sensitizers, the cut-off drops to 0.1%.² Even trace amounts of a carcinogen can pull an entire product into the SDS requirement.

What Is Exempt

Not everything hazardous requires an SDS. Several categories sit outside the standard:

Consumer products used the same way a typical household would use them, in similar amounts and for similar durations. A bottle of glass cleaner used to wipe a desk fits. A 55-gallon drum of the same cleaner used daily does not.
Articles: manufactured items that do not release hazardous chemicals under normal use, such as a steel filing cabinet.
Food, drugs, and cosmetics regulated by the FDA and intended for employees’ personal consumption.
Tobacco and wood products, unless they create a hazardous exposure. Untreated lumber sitting in a warehouse is exempt, but cutting or sanding that lumber produces wood dust, which is a health hazard and requires an SDS.
Hazardous waste regulated under the EPA’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The consumer product exemption is the one that trips up employers most often. The test turns on how much of a product is used and how frequently, not whether it is sold in retail stores. An employee using an aerosol solvent in a ventilated break room once a week is treated differently from a maintenance worker spraying it for hours in a confined space.

Who Must Prepare and Pass Along the SDS

The duty to create and distribute an SDS falls on chemical manufacturers, importers, and distributors. Manufacturers and importers must evaluate the hazards of each chemical they produce or bring into the country and develop an SDS before the chemical reaches anyone else.² The SDS must accompany the first shipment to a distributor or employer, and distributors must pass it along to their own commercial customers.

When a manufacturer learns significant new hazard information about a chemical, it must update the SDS within three months, and the revised version must ship with the next order of that chemical.² Distributors do not write their own SDS, but they are responsible for making sure the current version reaches every downstream buyer.

If a supplier goes out of business and you cannot obtain an updated SDS, OSHA’s position is that you may continue using the last version you received. You do not have to create a new one. But if you choose to write your own, you become the responsible party for its accuracy.³

When Employers Must Have One On Site

Every employer that uses hazardous chemicals must have an SDS for each one and keep it accessible to workers during every shift. Accessible means employees can get to the information without leaving their work area.⁴ The obligation applies whenever workers could be exposed to a hazardous chemical during normal operations or a foreseeable emergency such as a spill or fire.

Employers also need a written hazard communication program describing how the workplace handles SDS access, labeling, and employee training. Workers must be trained on the chemicals in their area when they start the job and again whenever a new chemical hazard is introduced.² Training has to cover how to find an SDS, how to read it, and what protective steps to take.

Non-English-Speaking Workers

If employees receive work instructions in a language other than English, hazard communication training must also be delivered in a language they understand.⁵ The standard does not require the SDS itself to be translated, but the training that teaches workers how to use it must be comprehensible.

Electronic Access and Backup

Keeping SDS files on a computer or tablet is fine, as long as employees can pull them up immediately. OSHA has interpreted “readily accessible” to mean instant access and has said a two-hour wait between a request and receiving the information is too long.⁶ An electronic system needs a backup plan for power outages or equipment failures. OSHA has accepted telephone-based backup as adequate, but only as a secondary system and only if the SDS information is delivered as quickly as possible.⁴

Multi-Employer Worksites

On construction sites or shared facilities, each employer whose chemicals could expose another company’s workers must make its SDS available to those other employers. Each employer’s written hazard communication program must describe how SDS access, labeling information, and safety precautions will be shared.² An employer can rely on another employer’s program at the site, but it still needs its own written program documenting that arrangement.

Records After a Chemical Leaves the Workplace

When you stop using a hazardous chemical, you do not need to keep the full SDS indefinitely. You must retain a record of the chemical’s identity, where it was used, and when it was used for at least 30 years.⁷ The 30-year window exists because some occupational diseases take decades to surface, and employees and their physicians may need to trace past chemical exposures long after a product has been discontinued.

Penalties for Missing or Inaccessible SDS

Missing or inaccessible Safety Data Sheets are among the most common reasons for OSHA citations. As of 2025, the maximum fine for a serious violation is $16,550 per violation, and for a willful or repeated violation, the cap is $165,514 per violation.⁸ These amounts are adjusted annually for inflation.

Each missing SDS can count as a separate violation, so a workplace with a dozen chemicals and no documentation could face six-figure penalties from a single inspection. The most frequently cited failures involve not having an SDS on site at all and not making existing sheets accessible to employees.

Beyond OSHA: EPCRA Reporting

OSHA is not the only federal law that creates SDS obligations. Under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, facilities that store hazardous chemicals above certain thresholds must submit their SDS (or a list of covered chemicals) to the local emergency planning committee, the state emergency response commission, and the local fire department.⁹ For extremely hazardous substances listed under EPCRA Section 302, the trigger is 500 pounds or the chemical’s threshold planning quantity, whichever is lower. For other hazardous chemicals that require an SDS under OSHA, the threshold is 10,000 pounds.¹⁰ Hitting either threshold also triggers an annual Tier II inventory filing under EPCRA Section 312.

2024 Rule and Upcoming Compliance Dates

OSHA finalized major updates to the Hazard Communication Standard in 2024, aligning it with Revision 7 of the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System. The changes affect hazard classification, labeling, and SDS content, including a new hazard class for desensitized explosives, revisions to skin corrosion and eye damage classification, and prescribed concentration ranges for trade secret ingredients on an SDS.¹¹

A January 2026 rule extended the original compliance deadlines. The current schedule:

May 19, 2026: manufacturers, importers, and distributors evaluating substances must comply with all modified provisions.
November 20, 2026: employers must update workplace labeling, hazard communication programs, and employee training for substances.
November 19, 2027: manufacturers, importers, and distributors evaluating mixtures must comply with all modified provisions.
May 19, 2028: employers must update workplace labeling, hazard communication programs, and employee training for mixtures.

Until those deadlines arrive, companies may comply with the previous 2012 version of the standard, the updated 2024 version, or both.¹² OSHA estimates that over 90% of existing SDS documents will need updates to meet the revised requirements.

1
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards
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eCFR. 29 CFR 1910.1200 – Hazard Communication
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Employers Responsibilities Under HCS 2012 to Classify Hazards
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OSHA. Hazard Communication Standard: Safety Data Sheets
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Letter of Interpretation Regarding Hazard Communication Training for Non-English Speaking Employees
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Using the Telephone to Back-Up Electronic Access to MSDSs
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 2025 Annual Adjustments to OSHA Civil Penalties
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 11021 – Material Safety Data Sheets
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EPA. Chapter 5 – EPCRA Sections 311 and 312: Hazardous Chemical Inventory Reporting
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OSHA. Final Rule Modifying the HCS to Maintain Alignment With the GHS
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Federal Register. Hazard Communication Standard