Correct Labelling of all chemicals is critical to work place safety, is a legal requirement and avoids costly disposal of unknown products. There are different labelling requirements for hazardous and non-hazardous substances and also for chemical wastes.

Commercially available chemicals should be appropriately labelled by the manufacturer, and will not generally require relabelling. If a label is damaged, obscured, or chemicals are decanted into a new container or used to make a new solution, a new label is required. The procedure indicates information that is required for different types of chemical products, and how to print labels out.

Hazardous substances are required by law to be labelled with the following information:

• signal word(s) and/or dangerous goods class label
• product name, chemical name, United Nations Number, ingredients
• risk phrases and safety phrases
• directions for use*, first aid procedures and emergency procedures*
• details of manufacturer or importer
• expiry date (where relevant)* and reference to MSDS

The above are required by law on the label of any hazardous substance in a container 500ml or 500g or larger. If the container is smaller than this the asterisked (*) information can be omitted from the label. If the container is too small to have a label attached (i.e. 1ml eppendorf), legislation requires that the label be tied to the container with string, or that the container is placed in an appropriately labelled outer container (refer to Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996 5.6 and National Code of Practice for the Labelling of Workplace Substances). 

Labels containing the required information can be printed for chemicals using Chem Alert by:

• opening Chem Alert 3 (https://chemalert.rmt.com.au/uwa)
• entering the chemical requiring a label into the terms to search box
• right clicking on the product requiring a label and selecting view/print product report
• selecting the disired label size from the Report Type drop down box
• clicking on the label setup button and selecting the desired number of labels
• and clicking view/print button

Chem Alert labels can be printed onto Avery Parcel Label sheets which come in a variety of sizes (1, 4, 8 etc per A4 sheet) and types (laser, colour, clear, waterproof, etc).

Since non-hazardous substances should pose little threat to personnel there are less stringent labelling requirements for non-hazardous substances. Non-hazardous substances are required to be labelling with the following information:

• Full chemical name and concentration of constituents (abbreviations and chemical symbols/structures are not adequate)
• Name of the user and contact number
• Date
• Location (School/Section, building, lab number)

Non-hazardous substances can be labelled with a label from Chem Alert. However, templates for printing labels of various sizes are available from the Safety and Health website. These labels can be filled in electronically and printed onto label paper or printed and filled in by hand, providing a quick and easy solution to correctly labelling your non-hazardous substances.

Click here to access UWA non-hazardous substance label templates.

All chemical wastes must be correctly labelled to ensure the safety of personnel and to prevent costly disposal of unknown substances. Waste containers should be labelled before waste is collected and as far as practicable chemical wastes should be segregated. Segregation of wastes is a good safe work practice and makes disposal of waste simpler and cheaper. Chemical wastes must be labelled with a completed UWA chemical waste label (available in various sizes) with the following information:

• Full chemical name and concentration of all constituents (abbreviations and chemical symbols/structures are not adequate)
• Indication as to whether the waste contains either hazardous substances or dangerous goods
• Name of the user and contact number
• Date over which waste was collected
• Location waste was collected (School/Section, building, lab number)

Offsite chemical waste disposal is coordinated through Safety and Health for the University. Items that do not display a completed and correct UWA Chemical Waste label will not be collected.

Click here to access UWA chemical waste label templates.