Getting started

From formula to bottle

Updated October 2026

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One: classify the hazards Two: decide who you are selling to Three: build the label for the regime you are in Four: write the safety data sheet Five: check the transport side Then the container, which is one question Keep the five answers together Classification is the work, everything else is derived References

Four steps, and the second one decides which label you are writing.

One: classify the hazards

Hazard class and category, which is the technical exercise the whole system rests on and which the appendices to the standard set out. Every label element follows from the classification rather than from judgment about the product.

Two: decide who you are selling to

A workplace buyer puts you in hazard communication. A consumer product subject to an FHSA or CPSC labeling requirement is outside it and inside that regime instead. That is a commercial decision with a labeling consequence.

Three: build the label for the regime you are in

For HazCom, the six elements in accordance with Appendix C for each hazard class and category, prominently displayed, in English, with the signal word, hazard statements and pictograms grouped together.

Four: write the safety data sheet

Sixteen numbered sections in the order the standard lists, with Appendix D setting the content of each. It is a fixed structure and the order is not optional.

Five: check the transport side

The label must not conflict with the DOT rules, and section 14 of the sheet carries the transport information. If the product is a Class 3 flammable liquid the limited quantity provisions set inner packaging limits by packing group.

Then the container, which is one question

Chemical resistance. 149 HDPE and 42 glass containers, and the liner against your chemistry is the part to put to the supplier in writing with the substance and the concentration named.

Keep the five answers together

Classification, buyer and regime, label artwork, the sheet with its revision date, and the container with its liner. A reformulation reopens the first and therefore most of the rest.

Classification is the work, everything else is derived

Five of the six label elements and most of the sheet fall out of the hazard class and category. Spending the effort there rather than on the label design is how this category is done efficiently.

References

29 CFR 1910.1200(f), Labels and other forms of warning. Paragraph (f)(1) lists the six required elements on a shipped container: product identifier, signal word, hazard statements, pictograms, precautionary statements, and the name, address and telephone number of the responsible party. (f)(2) requires them to accord with Appendix C for each hazard class and category, prominently displayed and in English; (f)(3) requires the signal word, hazard statements and pictograms to be located together; (f)(5) requires the label not to conflict with the DOT transport rules. law.cornell.edu

29 CFR 1910.1200(g), Safety data sheets, which requires a sheet for each hazardous chemical produced or imported, in English, with sixteen numbered sections in the order listed and the content of each set out in Appendix D, including section 14 Transport information and section 15 Regulatory information. law.cornell.edu

49 CFR 173.150, Exceptions for Class 3 (flammable and combustible liquids), the limited quantity provisions with inner packaging limits of 0.5 L, 1.0 L and 5.0 L by packing group and a 30 kg gross cap per package. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal regulation and from measured catalog data, not from a plant floor. Hazard classification is a technical exercise with appendices behind it, and nothing here classifies a chemical or writes a label. The point of these pages is to show which regime applies and what it asks for.