GHS 체계에 대응한 MSDS DB 구축 및 정보 제공 프로그램 개발

The United Nation agreed to adopt the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) until 2008 to solve the significant differences enough to result in different labels or MSDS for the same chemical in different jurisdictions. Though the GHS is an ideal solution in the respect of pursuing only one format of a MSDS throughout the world, it may cause confusion at the beginning due to lack of information. So the Korean Ministry of Labor (MOL) revised the Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA) and related public notice on the classification & labelling of chemicals according to the GHS in 2006. The transition period for the implementation of the GHS for substances was set until Jun 30, 2010, and for mixtures until Jun 30, 2013. To promote the implementation of the GHS in Korea, we developed an application program for constructing MSDS database and a management program for providing MSDS contents on the web in accordance with the GHS. We analyzed the sixteen sections of MSDS by the GHS guideline, and the result showed the necessity to construct logically connected DB for chemical identifier, hazard classification, label, standard phrases and regulatory information. Each section of a MSDS was divided into sub-databases to update the database efficiently. According to Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), the sub-databases were automatically assembled and subsequently a full MSDS is produced. At present, MSDS database for 6,314 substances has been built and provided through internet as the MSDS Editing program. During the service period from January 1 to March 31, 13,666 users have searched MSDSs for 33,401 substances. During program review, some comments about the classification results and other MSDS element sources were reported but no technical bug reported. We expect that the MSDS DB management system in accordance with GHS will accelerate the implementation of the GHS in Korea.