Chemical Procurement

Hazardous chemicals

Purchase of hazardous chemicals is subject to completion and approval of appropriate Hazardous chemical risk assessment and identification of appropriate storage conditions. An approved risk assessments and SDS must accompany all requisitions on Unimarket. All chemical purchase orders must be reassigned to an approved chemical buyer.

What is a hazardous chemical? See Hazardous chemicals - Overview | Safe Work Australia

A hazardous chemical is any substance, mixture or article that satisfies the criteria for any one or more hazard classes in the GHS hazardous categories (including a classification referred to in Schedule 6 of the WHS Regulations), unless the only hazard class or classes for which the substance, mixture or article satisfies the criteria are any one or more of the following:

• acute toxicity—oral—category 5
• acute toxicity—dermal—category 5
• acute toxicity—inhalation—category 5
• skin corrosion/irritation—category 3
• aspiration hazard—category 2
• flammable gas—category 2
• acute hazard to the aquatic environment—category 1, 2 or 3
• chronic hazard to the aquatic environment—category 1, 2, 3 or 4
• hazardous to the ozone layer

Scheduled substances

Where the substances are regulated or controlled, evidence of appropriate purchasing authority must be provided prior to sign off. Please see Scheduled Substances Management Procedure and Schedule 8 and 9 Substances Information Sheet

Industrial chemicals

The use of industrial chemicals is regulated in Australia. Please see Australia's industrial chemicals roadmap: Better environmental management of chemicals (dcceew.gov.au)

All chemicals must be purchased from an Australian supplier where possible. This ensures that the chemical has come from a supplier required by Australian legislation to provide a compliant SDS and labelling. Where this is not possible, chemicals purchased from overseas suppliers will be considered, however this incurs significantly greater regulation.

As the importer or manufacturer you are required under the Model Code of Practice (Preparation of safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals: WHS Regulation 330) to prepare an SDS compliant with Australian standards.