Can I have one MSDS that will cover both the United States and Canada?

                                                                                         

Yes. One MSDS can be produced in order to be compliant in the United States and Canada. An MSDS author must ensure that the document meets Canadian and the United States requirements by presenting all the required data on the MSDS.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) developed a new standard (Z400.1-1993) to assist with the MSDS preparation. The main reason for the ANSI standard is to give enough information in a consistent manner and to make it much easier to find that certain data no matter who the supplier of the MSDS is. ANSI standard provides a 16 section heading MSDS under one condition, that the required content specified under Schedule I, Column III of the Controlled Products Regulations (CPR) is addressed.

The 16-section MSDS from both the United States and the European Community are in some cases acceptable in Canada but in almost all other cases, the foreign MSDS will not cover all the disclosure items required by Hazardous Products Act (HPA). However, it is always recommended to have an MSDS produced in the ANSI format in order to be compliant in both the United States and Canada.

As it has been stated in Section 12, Schedule I to the CPR, Canada’s MSDS main standard is a 9 section heading requirement. However, in order to make the North American transition of chemical controlled products from the United States to Canada much easier the ANSI format was accepted in order to meet the standards and be compliant under the CPR Section 12 requirements.

Under the International Labor Organization (ILO) heading "Regulatory Information", following declaration needs to be visible: "This product has been classified in accordance with the hazard criteria of the Controlled Products Regulations CPR and the MSDS contains all the information required by the CPR." All headings and subheadings of the MSDS document must be addressed by disclosing the accurate information or if no information is accessible or obtainable, the MSDS author must declare that the information is not available or not applicable, as appropriate.

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