Manufacturers producing products from paint to pharmaceuticals, faced with a daunting list of chemicals to monitor for regulatory compliance, have new software from Actio Corp. to consider.
Actio, based in Hampton, N.H., will announce on Oct. 24 major upgrades to its MSDS Vault that will enable users to prescreen their internal chemical lists against a library of international, federal, state and locally regulated chemicals.
MSDS refers to Material Safety Data Sheets provided by different organizations that give the proper procedures for working with a particular substance.
The documents include such information as physical data, health effects, first aid, reactivity, storage, disposal, protective equipment, and spill and leak procedures for chemicals.
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For those companies looking to comply with U.S. regulations—as well as international compliance initiatives like the Kyoto Agreement that require that certain chemicals be kept out of manufacturing processes—Actio has added a new Tool Box feature in MSDS Vault that helps identify and pinpoint the location of illegal chemicals.
At the same time, chemicals can be pre-screened before theyre acquired to make sure compliance objectives are being met.
The Tool Box also has a reporting capability that keeps track of chemical components defined in the U.S.-based ISO Standard 14000—deemed volatile or hazardous—that manufactures should reduce or remove altogether, officials said.
A new Administrative Dashboard keeps track of material safety documentation versioning. It also provides information about the status of requested documents.
The MDS Vault utilizes Actios IntelligenText database software that maintains a manufacturers original OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] or ANSI [American National Standards Institute] MSDS format. It also has a search capability that lets users search on any word in their original MSDS inventory list.
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