HSNO Regulations - Inventories

Inventories

The PCBU must have and maintain an inventory of hazardous substances used, handled, manufactured or stored at the workplace (excluding those consumer like products used in a way consistent with household use).

The inventory must include

• Product or chemical name & UN number (if available)
• Maximum quantity likely to be at the workplace
• Location of the substances or waste
• Any specific storage and segregation requirements
• The current safety data sheet or a condensed version of the key information from the safety data sheet
• For hazardous waste a description of the nature of the waste is used where there is not a product or chemical name (for example ‘chlorinated solvent waste’, ‘flammable waste’)

This needs to be available to emergency services – including during an emergency and when the site has been evacuated.  Your inventory can be available electronically in the case of an emergency, provided that it is accessible by staff.  So keeping the inventory only on one computer in the office is not ‘available’ in this sense and a hard copy may be required as well.  If however the inventory was stored off site (e.g. cloud storage or other, externally accessible computer system) then this would be acceptable. 

You will note that the list above does not include the Hazard Classification of the product in the identification section.  This was an omission related to the desire by the EPA to change the classification system, however this has not happened and so this item was not included in the final regulations.  Chemsafety recommend that you include the Hazard Classification of the products on your inventory as it assists with organising/sorting the inventory, and helps determine storage incompatibilities.