Are SDS sheets required for a house cleaning business?
That is an excellent question and we're going to talk about that today.
Hi there, I'm Angela Brown and this is Ask a House Cleaner.
This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question
and I get to help you find an answer.
Now today's show comes from a house cleaner who has this question.
Speaker 2: Are SDS sheets required for housekeeping business?
Angela Brown: All right. Yes. The answer is SDS sheets,
which stands for Safety Data Sheets and is part of the globally harmonized system
requires that house cleaning companies do use SDS sheets for their business.
Here's how it works.
Every manufacturer that comes out with a new chemical or even they come out with sponges
or they come out with some kind of cleaning solution or supply or some kind of chemical,
it's deodorant, it's shampoo, it's soap, anything that you buy that has chemicals mixed together,
these have what's called an SDS sheet.
It's a Safety Data Sheet and it is required by law that every manufacturer has one.
Okay, so what it does is it breaks down into sixteen parts and it gives you the manufacturers
name, it tells you what the components of the ingredients are so that you know if they're
toxic or they're non-toxic or whatever, then it breaks it down.
Is it toxic or is this earth-friendly?
And then it goes onto explain like what happens in case of an emergency?
For example, let's say that you have a cleaning solution and a child drinks some of it while
you're cleaning.
Yikes, what do you do?
Then it tells you what you do.
Do you just give them water and flush it out of their system or do you need to call the paramedics?
Depending on what kinds of chemicals you use, knowing what is in the SDS sheets will help
you determine what are the safest products for your customers?
As a solo house cleaner, there is nobody that is mandating you know that information but
my recommendation to you is you're a professional.
You get paid to clean for a living and so you should know this right off the top of your head.
If you have 10 chemicals that you use, you should sit down one day and you should find
all of the Safety Data Sheets for those and an easy way to find them is to go to Google,
type in the name of the chemical and then a colon and then SDS and it will pop right
up on the internet.
All right, once you go through the SDS then you know,
"Hey, this is going to be good to my health,"
because even as a solo house cleaner you are responsible for your own health.
And so if you're using chemicals that are toxic, that have fumes that are going to make
you go lightheaded or dizzy, you want to know that right?
Because as a house cleaner you're not just going to do this for this week, you're going
to be cleaning next month, next year, five years, ten years down the road.
And we all know that when we find a product we love, we get in a rut of using that product.
But if it has detrimental effects, long-term to your health, you need to know that right
now and maybe find a different switch so that you're not fumigating your body with all kinds
of things that are going to cause you harm later on or give you cancer or something else.
All right, now once you own a cleaning company and you have employees, there's a program
called OSHA and that is a program in the United States that mandates work safety rules.
And one of the work safety rules is you have to have, you have to, it's by law, this is
not optional, you have to have SDS sheets available for all of the products that you
use for all of your employees.
Now, most employees will create an employee handbook and it has all the SDS sheets in there.
Or they have space at their office.
Like, let's say there's a main hub and all the house cleaners come to the main hub to
pick up their cleaning supplies and their vacuums and all of that stuff.
At the main hub, there would be usually a display case that has your employee manual
and it has a list of all the SDS sheets of all the products and chemicals that you use.
And so, I will put links in the show notes to the particular products that I'm talking
about because they are very helpful for your employees.
Now the flip side of it is this, we live in an era where your employees can report you
to the Labor Board if you don't have this.
And so if you don't have what I'm talking about and you don't have it available for
your employees, they can report you and the Labor Board can either come and give you a
hefty fine or help put you out of business.
Don't skip a couple of the rules because you think you're above it or you're too busy or
you don't have the time or any of those things.
As a business owner and as a professional, you need to know what kind of chemicals you're
using and if your customers ask you,
"Hey, I heard that this chemical is kind of like hazardous to your health,"
you need to know that.
"No, it's not, it's actually toxic free and here's the reason why we decided to use it
over other grocery store brands."
And so it's helpful for you to know and to be honest and have conversations and dialogues
with your customers.
Now, having said that I wouldn't bring up the chemicals to your customers
unless your customer brings it up.
A lot of people don't care what you use as long as it does the job and as long as you
do what you say you're going to do and it's a reasonable price and whatever.
Most people don't want to know all the details.
So my recommendation is don't bring it up.
It's not a part of your walkthrough and it's not a part of normal conversation.
But if a customer asks you because there will be customers that ask you, you can't go,
"Um, well, uh, I know that there's something online.
I'll look it up and get back to you."
No, you need to know off the top of your head.
These are the reasons we chose this product.
These products are safe for your animals and your kids.
This is safe for breathing.
It's not going to cause you any problems with your lungs or your respiratory systems whatsoever.
You need to know that information.
You need to know about the products that you're using.
All right, having said that, my suggestion is it's going to take some time.
This is one of those tasks that does not happen by itself and it is not easy.
But once you go through the 16 steps, and I'll put a link to the breakdown of the 16 steps, and they're
the same, they're all uniform on all the different Safety Data Sheets that you get,
they're all the same.
And I say the same in all 16 categories have the same information.
It's different for every company and every product but they all have the same 16 sections.
Once you learn how to read it, it's really easy.
But my recommendation is to spend a Saturday.
Sit down and pull up all the Safety Data Sheets for the products that you use and get really
familiar with them and learn about what you use and why.
And you may decide you're going to create some of your own products and you're going
to use some very earth friendly stuff that you have in your refrigerator or your cupboards
because it is so non-toxic and you can do so many different things with it.
I will put links on the sidebar in our blog of that as well.
The blog is AskaHouseCleaner.com.
And you will see all the different self-recipes you can use for non-toxic, earth-friendly,
eco-friendly, green cleaning products.
All right, that is about Safety Data Sheets and yes, they are so, so, so, so important.
All right, my two cents for the day and until we meet again,
leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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