HAND SANITIZER and SDS'

There has been a lot of discussion about whether workplaces need to obtain SDSs for hand sanitiser or list hand sanitiser on a Hazardous Chemical Register to comply with their obligations under the Work Health and Safety Regulation. 

Workplace Health and Safety Qld published their position on the issue. In short, where hand sanitizer is used in an office environment or on a construction site, it is reasonably foreseeable it will only be used in quantities that are consistent with household use and that it is purchased as a consumer product. It therefore does not require an SDS or to be registered in the hazardous chemicals register for a workplace. That position does however change if you are purchasing a bulk 20L container for instance. 

Damian’s workplace bio portrays him as a reasonably experienced individual who, outside of work, enjoys rugby union (so he and I have that in common), golf and spending time out on the water. 

At the time writing Damian plies his trade in the Construction and Infrastructure; Government; and Health and Ageing sectors, and offers services in OHS; Litigation and Arbitration; Insurance and Workers Compensation. From all of that, I would suspect he would have a reasonably decent knowledge of safety and health… stuff. At least from the legal side of the fence. 

(Also, perhaps interestingly, Damian has been included in the Best Lawyers Australia for Occupational Health and Safety Law, 2021. "Interesting" because I am writing this in mid-May, 2020).

His article was penned with a Queensland slant, so the legislation he speaks about is the “harmonized” WHS legislation Queensland embraced in early 2012. As a side-bar note, as of writing Victoria has still not expressed any real interest in moving towards harmonizing and looks like they will remain the sole outlier across Australia (learning recently that WA has, finally, started making real noises about doing so). And though Damian's message was Queensland-centric, its underlying theme remains relevant for workplaces anywhere in Australia.

His article came hot on the heels of a shortage of hand sanitizer across Australia, a consequence of the massive increase in consumption during COVID-19 across the globe. As a response to persistent public-health reminders and promotion to wash hands and use hand sanitizer, it was easy enough to understand why the stuff was flying off supermarket shelves in job-lots being bought by a panicked public. 

But, with hand sanitizer being promoted on high-rotation the obvious question - at least from my POV - I felt we would eventually see being asked was whether it would need to be accompanied by its Safety Data Sheet (SDSs) at the workplace. (And thereafter, what sort of risk assessment documentation we would also be asked to ensure was in place).

Personally, I was hoping we could introduce something that was this ubiquitous into workplaces without any of the hand-wringing and death-by-a-thousand-committees that can accompany these sorts of things. 

But...

At the time of writing Damian’s article had attracted 39 Reactions and 10 comments. Two of the 10 comments were mine.

The first of those was this:

• Sensible (almost intuitive), and good to know. Couldn't help but wonder, though, why the linked article felt there was any value in bringing SWMS' into the discussion. In what universe would the act of using a garden-variety brand of hand sanitiser, as intended, come anywhere close to what's required to be considered when generating a SWMS?

The 'linked article' I refer to was what Damian provided a link to, in his post: a Queensland Workplace Health and Safety article that fleshed out this subject in its entirety. When I landed on that, I questioned why Queensland's OHS regulator felt it was necessary to bring SWMS' into the discussion (because... aren't SWMS' intended to be applied to High Risk Construction Work? That being the case, what does hand sanitizer have to do with HRCW?).

My question attracted two replies, one from Sean Cuffe (Principal Advisor – Safety and Sunbase Services) and another from Susan Zivcec, the Principal Consultant – Wellbeing, Health and Safety and Manage Damage. I don’t know Sean or Susan. 

From Sean:

• The universe where WHS Reg part 3.1 and r344 are applied to the letter, it’s an interesting place!

And then Susan posted a comment. For the purposes of this page, I need to paraphrase what she wrote based on memory - because she removed her comment after I had penned a response to it (below). So, from memory she advocated making hand sanitiser available at the immediate work-front of vocations like boilermakers and welders, while they were conducting hot work (welding or grinding, for example). Additionally, she suggested it be accompanied by its SDS and incorporated into whatever relevant risk documentation was linked to the activity, such as a Safe Work Method Statement.

As a response to what Susan had written, I wrote: 

• Susan, I’m not now, but have worked around all of the vocations you’ve mentioned for the thick end of 20 years. Not once have I seen hand-sanitiser at their work fronts. Granted, none of that occurred during a pandemic of this nature but even if someone was suggesting hand-sanitiser as their solution, I’d be advocating the good ole’ garden variety soap and running water combo (hand-washing) as their first port of call.

So to that, Susan removed what she had originally penned. I concede that that now leaves this part of the comment cascade under Damian’s article looking a little unusual. At the very least, my comment to Susan no longer makes much sense, because the content I was responding is nowhere to be seen.

However, none of that dilutes the original point of Danian's post: if you buy and take a bog-standard pump-pack of hand sanitizer at work, it is likely that it is intended to be used in 'household' quantities and was purchased as a consumer product. That being the case, it won't require its SDS nor will it need to appear on the workplaces hazardous chemicals register.

Simple, and sensible.

I wonder if the same logic can be applied to the myriad of other garden-variety substances, such as domestic cleaning products, that inevitably end up being stored under sinks in every single office's kitchen, across the world?