Knowledge
Chemical inventory in the workshop
A workshop holds more chemical products than anyone thinks. Degreaser, brake cleaner, adhesive, paint, hydraulic oil, coolant, sealant. The requirement for an inventory and safety data sheets is easy to meet — the hard part is keeping it current when new containers arrive through the back door.
Updated August 2026
What the requirement means
The employer must investigate and assess the risks of the chemical products used, and must keep an inventory of them. The inventory is the starting point for everything else — without knowing what is in the building, nothing can be assessed.
The safety data sheet is the supplier's document and follows the product. You must keep the sheets available to those who work with the products, not locked in the office. A sheet in a binder two floors away formally meets the requirement but helps nobody who has got something in their eye.
Risk assessment is the step most often missing. Having the inventory and the sheets is not the same as having assessed how the product is used at your site — in what quantity, in what space, with what ventilation and alongside what else.
What the inventory must contain
The product name as printed on the packaging, not the name the workshop usually uses. "Degreaser" is not enough when three different products are called that.
Where the product is used and in roughly what quantity. A litre of solvent in an open tray is a completely different risk from the same litre in a spray bottle.
The product's hazards — hazard statements and pictograms from the label. That information determines which products need special handling.
Who is responsible for the product and when the details were last verified. An inventory without a date cannot be trusted.
What is specific to a body-building workshop
Thermosetting plastics are the heavy item. Two-component adhesives, some lacquers and sealants contain substances that require both medical checks and documented training for those working with them. That is a separate framework on top of the general requirements, and it is often missed in workshops that paint or bond in house.
Welding fume does not count as a product but is a chemical work environment risk, and must be assessed. Stainless and galvanised steel give different exposures from mild steel.
Waste oil and solvent residue become waste as soon as they are spent, and then fall under waste rules instead. Keeping product and waste apart makes both the inventory and environmental reporting simpler.
Keeping the list alive
Appoint one person who approves new chemical products before they are bought. It is the only measure that actually works — everything else becomes an annual clean-up of a list that is already out of date.
Review the inventory once a year and remove what is no longer used. A list of forty products of which fifteen sit unused makes the risk assessment heavier than it needs to be.
Check that the safety data sheets are current. Suppliers update them, and a sheet from 2016 may lack information added since.
Checklist
About half a day the first time, then an hour a year.
- Walk the workshop physically and write down every container, bottle and spray you find.
- Record the product name from the label, where it is used and roughly how much.
- Get safety data sheets from the supplier for anything missing.
- Put the sheets where the products are used, not only in the binder.
- Risk assess the products carrying hazard pictograms.
- Find out whether anything is a thermosetting plastic — extra requirements apply.
- Appoint who approves new purchases, and set a date for the annual review.
Common questions
- Must the inventory be digital?
- No, the format is free. But a digital list can be searched, shared and date-stamped, which a binder cannot. The requirement is that it exists and is current.
- Are the safety data sheets enough?
- No. The sheets are the supplier's information about the product. The inventory is your record of what you actually hold, and the risk assessment is your judgement of how it is used at your site. Three different things.
- What about small quantities?
- The requirement applies regardless of quantity. Quantity does affect the risk assessment though — a bottle of superglue and a fifty-litre drum of solvent are not assessed alike.
- Who is responsible?
- The employer. An individual fitter buying something themselves does not move that responsibility, which is precisely why purchases should go through one person.
Sources
Rules change. Always check against the source before acting — this page is an overview, not legal advice.
- Work Environment Authority provisions on chemical risks — inventory, risk assessment and handling requirements
- The supplier's safety data sheet — the product's hazards and protective measures
- Swedish Chemicals Agency, kemi.se — rules on substances, labelling and restrictions
Keep the inventory where the work happens
Documents, risk assessments and measures in the same system as the safety rounds — so the annual review becomes an item in the plan rather than something that slips.