In SharedSDS you select ingredients and specify proportions to classify a mixture and produce a semi-automated SDS which auto-configures for different jurisdictions and languages.
The best part of SharedSDS is sharing. A formulator can use supplier curated data directly in mixtures.
With invisible ingredient data sharing there is no requirement for suppliers to reveal trade secrets. However, SharedSDS provides a mechanism for visible data sharing under license to effectively provide free peer review.
Distributors can wrap a supplier's SDS with their local contact detail.
The default in SharedSDS is no sharing. If you wish to share you have to take specific actions.
All sharing - both SDS and data - either for a fee or free - is licensed. The terms control and protect intellectual property even when emergency services are involved.
If sharing for a fee, a shared revenue stream is delivered to both licensor and SharedSDS.
SharedSDS architecture and design covers the entire chemical industry supply and distribution chain world-wide. This includes workplaces in which chemical products are used.
The target audience for SharedSDS is chemists who author safety data sheets. They need a GHS classification system as a tool to reduce their human effort and manage their information.
SharedSDS makes political regulatory differences visible in the SDS so workplace managers can manage responsibly.
Many chemists suffer from data deprivation. They complain about obfuscated SDS data and difficulty sourcing data from suppliers and elsewhere. Intellectual property in expensively derived data as well as trade secrets are also barriers to getting classification data.
Much worse, data copied from elsewhere goes out of date. Copying is quill and ink thinking in the 21st century. It is the hardest problem of all because it persists and spreads like intractable pollution.
Partly a result of copying, poor data quality can only be attributed to lack of rigour somewhere along the line. It happens and the only rectification methodology is revealing it to fresh eyes. Trade secrets are usually reviewed in-house and such valuable data is typically good quality.
Exporters and importers have problems re-configuring SDSs for jurisdictions with classification rules different than the GHS and/or different in their home jurisdictions.
Regulations make the same substance hazardous in one jurisdiction but not in another. This is politics protecting the regulatory status quo without regard to science..
These world-wide problems have been evident for many decades. Like the UN Recommendations on the transport of dangerous goods and Model Regulations (UNRTDG) the UN GHS is a global attempt to address hazard classification issues.
Despite politics requiring the GHS to embrace classification variations It still deserves industry support and is the basis for SharedSDS to address the problems we have observed.
It is not the GHS but regulatory authorities world-wide which are responsible for politicised science. Accordingly, where there are political differences SharedSDS will display them in the SDS so that workplace managers will be able to discern how different jurisdictions classify the substance they must manage.
SharedSDS is permanently free for all SDS authors. However, 'no such thing as a free lunch' is axiomatic in business. The business plan for SharedSDS is to generate revenue directly from licensed sharing (see Licensing) and other direct service offerings in future.
We have zero interest in the business models, morals and methods of heavyweights in social media and internet search. We will allocate at least 25% and up to 50% of Board seats for user-elected Members to guarantee user interests.
SharedSDS is free solely to remove any price barrier to entry.
At the larger end of town we are likely to encounter fee-for-service contracts to develop API interfaces to allow interaction with existing systems. Similarly, data transfer services to permit relocation to SharedSDS. Such services are much more likely to be free at the small end of town where spreadsheets, consumer-style databases and tight budgets are the norm