WHS Regulation 2025, Part 7.1

Regulation

Any hazardous chemical at workplace

Trigger

Must not exceed 5 years

SDS Currency

Readily accessible to all workers

Accessibility

When chemicals change or SDS updated

Review Frequency

Virtually all workplaces

Applies To

You need a chemical register if any hazardous chemical is used, handled, generated, or stored at your workplace. Under the Globally Harmonized System of classification and labelling adopted in Australia, a hazardous chemical is any substance or mixture that meets the criteria for one or more hazard classes including flammable, oxidising, acutely toxic, corrosive, sensitising, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction. In practical terms, this covers an extremely broad range of workplace products. Construction sites use solvents, adhesives, sealants, fuels, and concrete additives. Manufacturing facilities use process chemicals, cleaning agents, lubricants, and maintenance chemicals. Offices use cleaning products, toner cartridges, and hand sanitiser. Healthcare facilities use disinfectants, medications, and laboratory reagents. If you have even one hazardous chemical at your workplace, you need a chemical register.

You do not need a chemical register only if no hazardous chemicals are present at your workplace. In practice, this is extremely rare because most workplaces use at least some products that are classified as hazardous chemicals. Consumer products used in a manner consistent with household use, such as a bottle of dishwashing liquid in an office kitchen, are exempt from some WHS Regulation requirements but best practice is to include them in the register regardless. Hazardous chemicals that are in transit through the workplace without being unpacked or used may not need to be on the register for that workplace, but the transport and logistics obligations still apply. If you are genuinely uncertain whether any products at your workplace are hazardous chemicals, review the safety data sheets for every product. If a product has a safety data sheet with GHS hazard classifications, it is a hazardous chemical and must be on the register.

The chemical register must list every hazardous chemical used, handled, or stored at the workplace. For each chemical, the register must include the product name, the manufacturer or importer details, and a reference to the current safety data sheet. A current safety data sheet must be obtained for every hazardous chemical and must be readily accessible to any worker who may be exposed to the chemical. Safety data sheets must not be more than five years old. If a safety data sheet is older than five years, the PCBU must request an updated version from the manufacturer or importer. The register must be kept at the workplace and must be readily accessible to workers, health and safety representatives, and anyone else who needs to access it in an emergency. The register must be reviewed and updated whenever new chemicals are introduced, existing chemicals are removed, or safety data sheets are updated. Many businesses maintain the chemical register as a spreadsheet or database linked to electronic copies of the safety data sheets.

The chemical register is the foundation of your hazardous chemical management system, but maintaining the register alone does not satisfy your WHS obligations. The PCBU must also conduct a risk assessment for each hazardous chemical to identify the hazards, assess the risks to health and safety, and implement controls using the hierarchy of controls. The risk assessment must consider the health hazards identified in the safety data sheet, the route of exposure including inhalation, skin contact, and ingestion, the duration and frequency of exposure, the quantity used, the controls in place, and the interaction between multiple chemicals. Where hazardous chemicals are used in combination, the risk assessment must consider the potential for synergistic or additive effects. The WEL transition commencing 1 December 2026 requires that exposure monitoring and control measures are benchmarked against the new workplace exposure limits. The chemical register provides the starting point for identifying which substances in your workplace have new WELs and which tasks may require monitoring.