Hazardous Chemical Register Template and Label Maker

Who needs a hazardous chemicals register

Under the model Work Health and Safety Regulations (regulation 346), a business that uses, handles or stores hazardous chemicals must keep a register of them at the workplace, keep it up to date, and make it readily accessible to the workers who use, handle or store them and to anyone else likely to be affected. The register must include a list of the hazardous chemicals and the current SDS for each one. It can be on paper or on a computer, as long as the people who need it can get to it.

The register does not need chemicals that are not hazardous, chemicals in transit (unless they are often or significantly there), or consumer products used the way a household would use them. A 1 kg box of laundry powder for washing work clothes is a consumer product; a 30 kg drum used by a commercial laundry is not (WorkSafe WA’s example).

Victoria is not under the model WHS laws. The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (regulation 162) ask employers for a register of all hazardous substances supplied to the workplace: a list of their product identifiers and a copy of the SDS for each, readily accessible to any employee who may be exposed. The same register works there. If you also store dangerous goods, Victoria’s Dangerous Goods (Storage and Handling) Regulations 2022 ask for a register of dangerous goods; for goods that are also hazardous substances, the hazardous substances register covers it (regulation 58). Western Australia uses the WHS (General) Regulations 2022, with the same register rule as the model regulations.

What goes in the register

Safe Work Australia’s hazardous chemicals register template has a header (company, date last reviewed, worksite and contact person) and a table with five columns: name of chemical, issue date of SDS, quantity, location and comments. In its words, “only the chemical names are mandatory”. It suggests adding information such as the GHS and dangerous goods classes. This tool prints the same header and the same five columns, in the same order, then adds:

• Supplier, and the pictograms or hazard class from section 2 of the SDS.
• Dangerous goods class and UN number, from section 14 of the SDS.
• Where the SDS is kept, so anyone can find it in a hurry.

Type the name of each chemical exactly as it is on its SDS (the product identifier), so the register, the SDS and the labels match.

The tool checks each row and adds a note, never a block: an SDS dated more than five years ago, no place given for the SDS, or the same product listed twice.

Safety data sheets: current, and reviewed every five years

The business must get the current SDS from the manufacturer, importer or supplier no later than when the chemical is first supplied to the workplace, and again when the SDS is changed (regulation 344). The manufacturer or importer must review the SDS at least once every five years and keep it correct (regulation 330), and every SDS must show the date it was last reviewed, or the date it was prepared (Schedule 7). Victoria has the same five year review (regulation 146).

So an SDS dated more than five years ago is out of date or about to be: ask your supplier for the current one. The tool flags it on the row.

Labels for spray bottles and decanted chemicals

When you pour a hazardous chemical from the supplier’s container into another one, such as a spray bottle, and it will not be used straight away, the new container needs a label in English with at least:

• the product identifier (the product name as on the SDS), and
• a hazard pictogram or a hazard statement that matches the chemical’s classification.

That is the minimum in Schedule 9 of the WHS Regulations and section 3.3 of the Code of Practice Labelling of workplace hazardous chemicals. More is better: the signal word, every pictogram and every hazard statement from the SDS.

Used straight away: no label needed. The Code says a decanted chemical is only used immediately when all three are true: it is not left unattended by the person who decanted it; only a person who was there when it was decanted uses it; and the container is emptied and cleaned straight after, as if it had never held the chemical. A bottle left for the next shift, or for someone else, needs a label.

A container filled again and again with the same product, such as a spray bottle kept on a cleaning trolley, should get a permanent label, and it must not be used for anything else. The tool’s permanent label adds the precautionary statements, the supplier and an emergency phone number.

The signal word goes in bold capitals (DANGER or WARNING) and the hazard statements in bold. Codes such as H314 are for finding the statement: only the words go on the label. In Victoria, a decanted hazardous substance must be clearly labelled with its product identifier, with the same exception for a substance used straight away in a container that is then cleaned (regulation 158).

Label sizes

Table 1 of the Code of Practice suggests these smallest sizes, measured along the edge of the pictogram. They are a guide, not a rule, and the tool never goes below them:

The Code does not say how text size is measured. The tool takes the stricter reading: capital letters at least that tall. Pictograms are a black symbol on white with a red border; the Code also allows a black border, which suits a black and white printer. The tool prints them as sharp vector shapes from the United Nations’ own artwork.

Diluted chemicals

The Code of Practice does not say how to label a diluted working solution, and we could not find a rule for it in the WHS Regulations either. The tool puts the hazards of the product as supplied on the label, with the strength you type, such as 50 mL in 1 L. It does not work out whether a dilution is less hazardous. Check the SDS and ask your supplier: some suppliers publish an SDS for the diluted product.

Worked example: a cleaner’s trigger bottle

Say section 2 of the SDS for a cleaner (we call it Example Cleaner A; the hazards are made up for the example) gives the signal word Warning, the exclamation mark pictogram and two hazard statements, H315 and H319. You mix it at 50 mL in 1 L in a 500 mL trigger bottle that stays on the trolley between shifts, so it needs a label. In the tool: add the chemical, tick the pictogram, pick H315 and H319, type the strength, and choose the decant label on a sheet of 10 labels (99.1 by 57 mm). Here it is at the smallest sizes for a container up to 500 mL; the tool prints it larger when there is room, never smaller:

Here the pictogram is 15 mm along each side and the capitals 2.5 mm tall. On this sheet the tool makes them bigger, as big as the label allows. Add the date made and your name on the label page if your site asks for them.

Worked example: a small workshop register

A workshop keeps four rows in its register (the products are made up for the example). The tool adds these notes:

Example Truck Wash C needs a current SDS from its supplier. Example Glass Cleaner D needs a place for its SDS. Example Degreaser B is kept in two places, which can be one row with both locations, or two rows on purpose. Print the register for the SDS folder, and download the CSV file as a backup: it opens in Excel, and the tool can read it back.

The nine GHS pictograms

Australia uses the seventh revised edition of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS 7), from 1 January 2023 (in Western Australia from 31 March 2023). Its nine hazard pictograms, with the hazard names from the Code of Practice:

Pick the pictograms your SDS shows. Some hazards have no pictogram, and some pictograms are left off when a stronger one is there: follow the SDS, not this table.

Sources: the model Code of Practice Labelling of workplace hazardous chemicals (2022, read in the ACT and NSW copies), the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Commonwealth compilation of 25 March 2025), Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017, WorkSafe WA and the GHS Rev 7 (United Nations). Safe Work Australia: hazardous chemicals register, placard and manifest threshold quantities and the manifest template. Western Australia: large quantities of hazardous chemicals.

Frequently asked questions