Hazardous Chemicals Register + SDS Template

The hazardous chemicals register is the smallest compliance document a workplace has to keep and the one most often missing. The duty is straightforward: a PCBU must maintain a register of the hazardous chemicals used, handled or stored at the workplace, keep a current Safety Data Sheet for each, and make both readily accessible to any worker who could be exposed. In practice registers fail for predictable reasons — they are created once and never updated, they list products that left the site years ago, or the SDS attached is a decade old and no longer matches the formulation. This template provides the register itself plus the process around it: how to complete each column, how to obtain and refresh SDS, how to track quantities against placarding and manifest thresholds, and a review cycle that keeps it accurate.

Hazards identified

9 hazards covered, sorted by priority.

Control measures

Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.

1. 1Physically walk every store, cabinet, vehicle and workshop bench
2. 2list what is actually there
3. 3wear gloves and eye protection when handling unfamiliar containers
4. 4Do not open or smell unknown containers
5. 5isolate and label anything unidentified for specialist disposal
6. 6Identify obsolete stock during the stocktake and arrange licensed disposal rather than leaving it to degrade
7. 7Obtain a current SDS for every registered chemical
8. 8request an updated sheet from the supplier where it is over five years old
9. 9brief workers on the hazards of what they use
10. 10Keep the register and SDS readily accessible at the point of use — not locked in an office
11. 11a digital copy is acceptable if workers can actually reach it during an emergency
12. 12Transfer the SDS spill and disposal guidance into the site spill procedure and waste arrangements
13. 13Nominate an owner for the register
14. 14brief workers that any new chemical must be registered before it comes on site
15. 15Review the register at least annually and whenever a chemical is introduced or removed
16. 16track quantities against placarding and manifest thresholds
17. 17Remove and dispose of discontinued chemicals through a licensed contractor and update the register

Applicable Codes of Practice

Worked example

An audit found a workshop's register listed 14 products, but a walk-through found 31 on the shelves — degreasers, adhesives and aerosols bought ad hoc over several years, none of them added. Three had no SDS at all and one was a product the supplier had reformulated. Rebuilding the register from an actual physical stocktake, rather than from purchase records, is what made it accurate.

Related legislation

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) — primary duty of care, s.19
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Chapter 3 Risk Management
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Part 4.2 Hazardous Manual Tasks
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Chapter 7 Hazardous Chemicals (register, SDS, labelling, placarding, manifest)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — emergency plan duty (s. 43)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Chapter 3 Part 3.2 general working environment, first aid and facilities

Frequently asked questions