Sunday, September 26, 2010

SAP EH&S Data Model - Use of Compositions

Dear Friends,

One of the significant aspects to the success of Safety Datasheet Generation / distribution projects is to use and adopt the eixsting data structures. Even for meeting regulatory requirements like to manage REACh Compliance, Volume Tracking or notification management it is necessary to use of right data model. Even, if EHS Data is needed for uploading to ECHA - CLP Notification Tool or REACh - IT, then information from Pure Substances is needed. For meeting these varied requirements there are a number of types of compositions which are available in SAP EHS. So if you are into a client project / needed to manage their data structure for meeting varied requirements, the first thing to notice is to study their existing data model and judiciously use them for meeting the to legislative needs. Remember the point that the priority would be not to disrupt existing business process and achieve the project objective.


The different types of compositions encountered in EHS include, Standard Composition, Exact Composition Based on Products (ECbP), Exact Components based on Components / Starting Material, Hazardous Composition, Legal Composition, REACH Use and Exposure Composition (U&E Comp), Impurities, Hazardous Ingredients (EU), DPDPlus and Pure Composition. Besides above standard types, based on client requirement there might be other flavours too. Here's the short overview of each of the component type.

1) Exact Components based on Products – Substances that are actually contained in the product after the production process has been completed and that can be detected by analysis. Can also consist of products which in turn consists of other components. This component type is generally used by different Expert Rules to calculated secondary data.

2) Standard Composition – Ingredients are substances, that are actually contained in the product after the production proces has been completed and that can be detected by analysis. These are generally taken from ECbP composition type and added together. Thes are calculated by Expert Rules – EHS Standard Comp Rule set.

3) Hazardous Ingredients - On the Composition tab page, specify the contents of the corresponding ingredients with lower limit, upper limit, and average value. In addition, specify the unit for the selected reference value.

4) Components with Occupational Exposure Limits - List of ingredients or ingredient groups (and their quantities) that are subject to an atmospheric limit value and must be specified with this limit value in the EU Safety Data Sheet in the current version), or in accordance with the Technical Regulations for Hazardous Substances.

5) Legal Composition – It’s an optional composition type excluding all impurities from Standard Composition for meeting legal requirements lik REACh. This together with recent release of Impurties –ideally should equal to Standard Composition.

6) REACH Use and Exposure Composition – Contains all substance, which are relevant for supply chain communication. Substances which are used in Compliance Workbench for triggering Supply chain communication.


Thanks

Friday, September 10, 2010

Practical Examples of Exposure Scenarios

Dear Friends,

ECHA has long released the Exposure Scenario Format and also a modified version to incorporate Contributing scenarios based on revised understanding. Exposure Scenarios are the set of information on operational conditions and risk management measures to be communicated to the users. Generally exposure scenario consists of description of conditions suitable to ensure control of risk related to the uses of a substance during the entire life-cycle. Environment, Workers and consumers are included covering one or more exposure uses. Data required for Exposure Scenario include Substance Properties, amounts, emission factors, onsite measures, personal respiration protection, frequency and duration of exposure, frequency and duration of use etc, depending whether it is Environmental Exposure, Workers or Consumer Exposure Scenario.

However one of the challenges in using exposure format is the availability some practical examples of exposure scenarios. Last week ECHA released sample exposure scenarios constituting three substances. These scenarios are specific to Semi Conductor Industry. The lesson's learned therein like how to manage site specific conditions versus Site independent data and how air emission management could generate risk to water compartment are very much helpful to understanding the complexity of the process.The data available therein is very good source to validate SAP EH&S Data models for Exposure Scenarios and also checking suitability of WWI Templates.

Note: Practical Examples of exposure Scenarios can be downloaded from ECHA Site http://echa.europa.eu/news/press_en.asp#press20100906

Thanks