Stoffenmanager® XML-standard

The access, credibility and interchangeability of data concerning chemicals/substances is considered the most crucial element for reducing exposure risks for both people, animals and environment. As a knowledge organization in the field of safe and healthy working with hazardous substances, Stoffenmanager® feels the shared responsibility to improve the data flow and its accuracy within our industry.

Does your company work with hazardous substances? Then you probably have to deal with the processing of a safety data sheet (SDS) on a regular basis. It is a standard procedure of producers and suppliers to add a SDS to the delivery of their products. A SDS indicates the composition of the various ingredients of a product and contains further information on hazards and safety instructions, as well as information for the operating instructions and physical chemical properties. This is required by law. Hazmat data are used in diverse business processes and regulatory context, such as:

• Worker exposure
• Environment
• Logistics
• Regulatory Affairs

Barriers in the Chain

However, HazMat data are notoriously difficult to share across tooling and environments because of numerous reasons. To name a few:

• Every HSE/Exposure tooling environment ‘sits’ on its own data. There is no historical willingness to share as this data is considered a business asset
• Lack of a common ‘layout’ and taxonomy (there is no proper common standard)
• Data quality- and organizational issues
• HazMat data sharing services consider HazMat data as an earning model

In practice, the processing of this data is very labour-intensive and different formats emerge gradually within the chain. From supplier to end user, the information from an SDS is repeatedly handled manually and therefore sensitive to errors. Entering this data is specialist work and requires attention and time. For an adequate hazardous substances policy, it is important to process the SDS data correctly, so that personnel are informed about the measures to be taken to work safely and healthily.

One step ahead

To take an innovative step towards a more efficient information flow within our industry, Stoffenmanager® offers the developed XML-standard for everyone to use freely. The Stoffenmanager® XML-standard for hazardous substances is characterized by a taxonomy formed in practice. It also combines both the SDS and the hazardous substances data in an interchangeable format. Of course, supplying an SDS from a supplier remains mandatory.

With the Stoffenmanager® XML-standard we offer a workable hazardous substances taxonomy in the form of an xml that makes data transportable. Now, everyone in the chain can easily import, label and export the correct data. More benefits of the Stoffenmanager® xml standard are:

• Defined taxonomy for HazMat definition
• Established and in use. Open and free, supported.
• Option to embed the source (SDS) itself with the HazMat data. No dependencies on external SDS hosting.
• Option to include company specific aspects
• Make product and component data available between different Stoffenmanager® accounts
• Make product, component and risk assessments available for data warehouse applications.
• Make product and component data available to other related tooling

Contact

Are you interested in learning more about the Stoffenmanager® XML-standard and how you can apply it in your business? Please use the contact form and one of our specialists will contact you soon.

Manual Stoffenmanager® XML