10 PSM 掳 08 掳 2002
MSDS Spotlight
Talos: The Future of MSDS
by Srimal Wangu Choi
T
he key function of Material Safety allow companies to make their docu-
Data Sheets (MSDSs) is to provide ments available over the Internet
information on the physical and anywhere in the world.
health hazards of chemicals in the work- In 1996, Pfizer Inc.鈥檚 Corporate
place. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Environment, Health & Safety (EHS)
Health Administration鈥檚 Hazard Department found themselves reevaluat-
Communication Standard (49 CFR ing their MSDS-related processes. The
1910.1200) requires all facilities to EHS professionals at Pfizer were looking
provide MSDSs to workers handling for an MSDS authoring product that
hazardous chemicals. For this reason, would offer a wide range of features,
writing and distributing up-to-date MSDSs ease-of-use, and the flexibility required to
is an essential task for all chemical,phar- meet the diverse needs of a large multi-
maceutical, and similar businesses, and national organization. Pfizer decided to
access to current MSDSs is integral to work collaboratively with Redshift
maintaining safety standards for any busi- Technologies, Inc., a software develop-
ness in which chemicals are used. ment firm specializing in EHS solutions,
Many businesses create MSDSs using to create a system that is easy to use,easy
simple word processing programs, and to access,and easy to maintain.Four years
many facilities catalogue them in hard- of intensive development by Redshift in
copy form. Unfortunately, this type of collaboration with beta users at Pfizer
system is bulky, inconvenient, and unreli- resulted in a comprehensive system
able. At critical times, the relevant MSDS called Talos.鈥淭alos grew out of the idea
may be impossible to find鈥攁nd often the that the process of MSDS authoring can
hardcopy MSDS on hand is out of date. be easy, intuitive, and interesting, allow-
For these reasons, many companies are ing professionals to focus on environ-
currently making the transition from mental health and safety issues rather
word-processor generation and hardcopy than entering data,鈥? says Kyung Choi,
distribution of MSDSs to software solu- Manager of Application Development.
tions.These systems allow authors to effi- 鈥淭he system has constantly been
ciently create and update MSDSs, and improved since its inception through
development in conjunction with MSDS
authors.The result is an MSDS authoring
and distribution system created by EHS
professionals,for EHS professionals.鈥漈alos
is currently used to generate, store,
distribute, and track MSDS documents.
Ease of Use
One of the most important requirements
during development of Talos was that the
system be easy to use. For EHS profes-
sionals that create MSDSs,Talos optimizes
productivity by providing the tools the
author needs to work most efficiently. In
addition to WYSIWYG (鈥淲hat You See Is
What You Get鈥?) technology, Talos incor-
porates phrase-based authoring, in which
the MSDS author is given a list of stan-
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dard phrases as well as the option to output is organized so that any EHS pro- at Pfizer Inc.鈥檚 Corporate EHS Department
create additional phrases. This point-and- fessional, MSDS author, or facility worker in 1999. Since then, the system has been
click, phrase-based interface makes the can easily read and understand the docu- used successfully and has been continu-
MSDS authoring process easy to learn ment, and the output is available in mul- ously upgraded鈥攚ith the help of user
and makes the process of creating MSDSs tiple formats,including RTF,ASCII,and feedback鈥攖o enhance features and
more efficient. MSDS authors that have PDF. In addition, a comprehensive MSDS expand functionality. The latest version,
used Talos say that it takes them half as approval process ensures that MSDSs 2.7, is currently available and is under
much time to create an MSDS document will only be publicly accessible when consideration by world-class pharmaceu-
now than it did when they used conven- fully reviewed and approved by a super- tical, chemical, and manufacturing organ-
tional authoring tools, such as a word visor, helping to assure that any distrib- izations.
processing program. uted MSDSs are error-free. The collaboration between EHS
Once an MSDS has been authored or professionals and software developers
Additional features revised and approved, Talos provides a has resulted in a system that is easy to
Text can be displayed in a variety of distribution system to store, distribute, use, saves time and money, and, as one
fonts and formats, and images and other and track MSDS documents. Talos MSDS author stated,鈥渁llows me to spend
files can be embedded in the document. Distribution is a web-based tool that auto- less time on the time-consuming respon-
Authorized users have the ability to add, mates and manages MSDS storage,deliv- sibility of authoring MSDSs and more
delete, and rename MSDS sections, fields, ery, and tracking. Since it integrates with time on intellectual challenges related to
and views.MSDSs. Complete search fea- the Talos authoring system, users can be the EHS profession.鈥?
tures allow Talos users to find relevant confident that the latest versions of
MSDSs quickly and easily. Real-time col- MSDSs are available at all times.
laboration is possible,allowing different Recipients of the documents can also be
professionals to work on the same MSDS automatically updated with new versions Contact Ms. Srimal W. Choi of Redshift
at one time. Multilingual tools help users of documents. The distribution system Technologies, Inc. to learn more about
translate the documents into other lan- allows users to manage and distribute Talos at schoi@redshift-tech.com or visit
guages, a feature that is essential for any their latest MSDSs efficiently and reliably. www.talos-msds.com
large multinational organization.MSDS The first version of Talos was deployed
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