Manufacturers can sometimes change the contents of a Safety Data Sheet they provide. This could be due to a change in substance formula, a change in product name, or even a simple change in their company name or address.

When Sevron obtain an update for an SDS, it is immediately added to the system's SDS database. The system will then indicate this SDS Update to you if you are using the substance in an assessment, or if it you have added it to one or more of your substance inventories.

Please note: The team at Sevron will perform the actual SDS updates. You can request an update for an SDS but the actual update process is performed by the Sevron team. The SDS Updates page you see in your account in the system will show you the updates that our team have made to the SDS your company currently uses and you must select whether to accept the update, or refuse it. If you require an update or have received an update from a manufacturer and we haven't yet performed the update, please contact support@sevron.co.uk.

A quick way to view a list of SDS updates from the system’s home page is to click the red SDS Updates legend entry below the coloured bar chart in the Substances widget.

This will load the SDS Updates area of the system.

Our Advice: You can also visit the SDS Updates area by clicking the Substances option in the menu down the left hand side of your screen to load the substances area, and then clicking the SDS Updates option at the top. See below:

You will now see the SDS Updates area of the system. This area is split into two tabs – SDS Updates and Declined SDS Updates.

Whilst on the SDS Updates tab, you will see a list of current SDS updates in the table. The SDS Updates table also has column filters to help you find specific SDS update data if required.

Our Advice: Each SDS update entry has an Old Revision Date column, and a New Revision Date column. Initially comparing these two dates will give you an indication as to how out-of-date the old SDS you are using is.

To identify the changes between the old and new SDS, you will need to download both SDS files and compare them. To do this, download the old SDS file by clicking the substance’s Red PDF icon to the left of the Old Revision Date. Next, download the new SDS file by clicking the Red PDF icon the left of the New Revision Date.

Once downloaded, you can compare the two SDS files to check for changes.

If the two files have minimal changes, or you are happy that the new SDS doesn’t contain any major changes that will impact your assessments if you update it, you can accept this update. To accept an update, click the Actions button next to the update and click on Accept Update.

Once clicked, you will be shown a list of assessments currently using the old SDS. To update the SDS in an assessment, click the tick box on the left side of it. You can also click the Edit Assessment icon next to an assessment to load the assessment wizard in a new web browser tab. This will allow you to check the assessment and make amendments to it manually.

Once you have ticked and selected all assessments to be updated, click the Update Assessments button.

If there are any assessments that you did not tick to update, these assessments will still include the old SDS. This means your Substance inventory will contain the old SDS and the new one. If this is the case, and you load up an assessment in the Assessment Wizard using the old SDS, that substance in the Substance Details section (step 3) will be displayed in pink (see below). You can swap out the old SDS for the new one by clicking the Update SDS button.

If you do update the SDS, please remember to republish the assessment to update the live published document.

Please Note: If there are any remaining assessments that you did not tick to update, the SDS Update will remain in the updates list until all assessments using the old SDS have been updated.

Please Note: If an SDS update is processed, all assessments that are updated with the new SDS WILL NOT be published automatically. This will need to be done by a user that has assessment publishing permissions.

You may come to a decision whereby you are not yet ready to accept an SDS update – for instance, you may have a large stock level of the old substance that relates to the old SDS you are using, and you may wish to keep using the old SDS whilst you deplete your old stock. If you are not yet ready to accept an update, you can decline it.

To decline an update, click the Actions button next to the update and click on Decline Update.

Next, type in an optional Reason for declining the update, and then click the Decline button.

Declined updates can be seen by clicking on the Declined SDS Updates tab, and can be accepted by clicking the updates Actions button, followed by clicking Accept Update button, and then following the Accepting SDS Updates instructions outlined above. See below:

Please Note: If an SDS Update relates to a substance in a location’s substance inventory only, and does not appear in any assessments, the update process will simply update the SDS in the location’s substance inventory.