Foreign Language
1. Please tell me about your foreign language features in your product.
Please watch this video for a basic understanding of how this works.
2. I have a foreign language license. How do I select a language (e.g., Spanish) and build the SDS template in this language (including the Hazard and Precautionary Statement)? (see images below)
Click on the "EN-English" drop down (upper right) and select the language. Only those with an asterisk are available.
Next select "Build NE report" from bottom right
Press the "Generate SDs text (NE) button.
Note: Watch the above video to learn how to populate the text boxes.
3. How do I obtain an SDS which I created in English in a foreign language, such as Spanish or French?
You could hire a technical translator experienced in translating SDS and have them do this for you.
We sell a foreign language license which can assist you by providing Section headings in certain foreign languages (French, Spanish and Italian). Please ask us for pricing for other languages. We have other translation features in SDScribe(TM), which include:
1. A web browser interface to Google Translate, where the user can paste the English text in to be translated; and then the ability to put it back into the SDS.
2. Paired (separate) fields for a non-English language, so that each SDS can be saved in both English and one non-English language.
3. H-statements, P-statements, and Signal Words in the EU languages, as well as some other non-English languages like Arabic and Japanese. These items appear in the "File (menu) -> Phrase translations" section. (However, the generate SDS function will incorporate them into an SDS on generation, unless the user has purchased a foreign language option.)
The machine translation, guidance documents, and translated phrases are provided by others on the internet. Consequently, we cannot claim accuracy or suitability for an SDS.
Here is a short video demonstration showing the use of this feature.
4A. In what language should the SDS be supplied (from ECHA)?
According to Article 31(5) of the REACH Regulation, the safety data sheet (SDS) shall be supplied in an official language of the Member State(s) where the substance or mixture is placed on the market, unless the Member State(s) concerned provide otherwise. Placing on the market means supplying or making available, whether in return for payment or free of charge, to a third party. Import shall be deemed to be placing on the market (Article 3(12) of the REACH Regulation).
The above also applies to exposure scenarios, which are a part of an SDS. A document listing the languages required for safety data sheets and labels within the EU is available at http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/13562/languages_required_for_labels_and_sds_en.pdf
4B. How do I edit the P and H phrases?
Go the the File / Phrase translations and you can open and edit the translated phrases.
5. What, if any guarantees, do you have in the accuracy of the foreign language text on SDS created using the foreign language add on?
We are not able to make any guarantees regarding features of the SDScribe(TM), either in terms of accuracy or suitability for a particular task. Section 5 of our end-user license contains the "no warranty" clause (copied below). The translation which we offer as an option is the ability to generate the full SDS ("Build NE report" tab) with section and subsection labels in a non-English language. If the user has not purchased the option, then the "Generate SDS (NE)" button will only generate part of the SDS, as a demo of how the option works. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) publishes a guide to producing SDSs ("Guidance on the Compilation of Safety Data Sheets", ECHA-15-G-07-EN), which is also available in the ~20 other EU country languages. We take the section labels in the non-English ECHA guides which are equivalent to the English, and substitute them into the SDS at the time of generation. These labels apply to generating the ECHA-format SDS. The section and subsection labels on the UN-format SDS differ in total number, and in some cases have different wording. They appear in the UN GHS document (5th Edition, 2013), Annex 4 (Guidance on the Preparation of Safety Data Sheets). We have not found UN Annex 4 in the same non-English languages as the ECHA document. Therefore, we make judgments about how the UN labels appear when we generate them in non-English languages. In addition, there are items like "General hazard statement", "Printed on", "trade secret", "Page x of y", "No data available", "Supersedes", etc., which we must translate ourselves. Because we have no proficiency in most of these languages, we make use of machine translation (Google Translate) for section labels and other items where a non-English equivalent is unavailable in the guidance documents. We have other translation features in SDScribe(TM), which are included for all users (i.e., they are not options, but part of the basic package):
1. A web browser interface to Google Translate, where the user can paste the English text in to be translated; and then the ability to put it back into the SDS.
2. Paired (separate) fields for a non-English language, so that each SDS can be saved in both English and one non-English language.
3. H-statements, P-statements, and Signal Words in the EU languages, as well as some other non-English languages like Arabic and Japanese. These items appear in the "File (menu) -> Phrase translations" section. (However, the generate SDS function will incorporate them into an SDS on generation, unless the user has purchased a foreign language option.)
The machine translation, guidance documents, and translated phrases are provided by others on the internet. Consequently, we cannot claim accuracy or suitability for an SDS.
For any SDS to be provided in a non-English language, we strongly encourage the user to have it reviewed by a native speaker or a professional translator. Where products are destined for EU countries, the ECHA requires that a non-EU producer have a distributor in the destination country. The in-country distributor is ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the SDS.
---------- excerpt from end-user agreement -----------
5. No Warranty. The Software is being delivered to you AS IS. Hazard Solutions, LLC makes no warranty as to its suitability for any particular use, or for its performance. Chemical manufacturers and distributors are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the Safety Data Sheets representing their products, and the Software cannot assume this role.
Hazard Solutions, LLC AND ITS SUPPLIERS DO NOT AND CANNOT WARRANT THE PERFORMANCE OR RESULTS YOU MAY OBTAIN BY USING THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION. Hazard Solutions, LLC AND ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT WILL HAZARD SOLUTIONS OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS OR LOST SAVINGS, EVEN IF A HAZARD SOLUTIONS REPRESENTATIVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY THIRD PARTY. Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential or special damages, or the exclusion of implied warranties or limitations on how long an implied warranty may last, so the above limitations may not apply to you.
---------- excerpt from end-user agreement -----------
6. With the optional language module, will I be able to do SDS in all of the languages listed in the program? Will I be able to create EU REACH/CLP compliant SDS and labels?
We offer SDS section and subsection titles for the asterisked (*) languages in the menu (SDS entry form, upper right). Currently the available non-English ones are French, Italian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish. There is one license for French, Italian, and Spanish; and other ones for Simplified Chinese, Portuguese, and Korean
Without either license, you can still generate one or two pages of the SDS, as a demo.
Note: “Phrase translations”, as described in the FAQ below can be used to import section and subsection titles in all the languages.
On the SDS entry form, there are separate, non-English fields corresponding to and layered beneath the English ones. You can view all of the non-English fields at once by clicking on the "NE lang" button, at the bottom of the SDS entry form.
Because of the paired non-English fields, you can actually prepare the SDS in any language you wish. However, the SDS section/subsection titles are available only in the asterisked languages. So if you select, say, "HR - Croatian" from the language menu, the program will offer to substitute English titles because it doesn't have the Croatian titles.
For some unsupported languages, the program can still provide non-English hazard (H-) and precautionary (P-) statements, because these items are available in the Phrases section of the program (File menu -> "Phrase translations").
Presently there are two options for SDS formats: UN and EU-ECHA
When you are ready to generate the SDS, you select the format you want to use on an options dialog. The "EU-ECHA" generally conforms to the customizations of the UN specification done by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
On an EU-ECHA format SDS, the ECHA may require as annexes safe use information for your product and exposure scenarios for the product components. The program does not generate these annexes. However, you can add them to the end of the SDS, because the generated SDS appears in a word processing area of the entry form.
The program at present includes thirteen versions for the hazard classification/H-statement/P-statement matrix:
UN Versions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9;
Canada/WHMIS (2015 and 2022);
EU/REACH; and
US-OSHA (2015 and 2021/24);.
The program allows you to include items from any of the other versions on the selected version. This option is relevant, for example, because US-OSHA does not include hazards to the environment.
Some European countries use a comma rather than a period as the decimal character on numeric values. SDScribe(TM) v.5.11 and earlier support only the period as decimal character. However, the future release should also support the comma decimal character.
On labeling, we offer a few formats for GHS-compliant labels, using either one or two columns, and portrait or landscape format. Two of them also include transportation information, and you can include up to three additional warning placards by placing the artwork in a folder on disk (warning placards appear in a separate location from the GHS pictograms).
You can generate the label in English or in a non-English language.
7. Are there ways to import foreign language headings in the program?
Yes. First, go the File menu and select “Phrase translations”. Then select the “Custom translation groups (CTGs)” tab. Under the “Select a language”, select Arabic. For a more complete explanation or the steps, read the Help (bottom of the window). You will need a language label license to be able to carry the translated phrases throughout the whole SDS. See image below
