Chemical products - information to manufacturers and suppliers

The main responsibility for the Swedish Poisons Information Centre is to give advice to the general public, physicians and other health care personnel in cases of acute poisonings.
Many accidents happen with chemical household products (about 28 000 inquiries to the Poisons Information Centre 2011). Children get hold of the products and taste them, adults get splashes in their eyes or accidentally drink them. Sometimes senile dement or mentally retarded persons drink a lot since they think they are drinking something else.
To be able to provide adequate advice in these incidents of poisoning, the Poisons Centre must have accurate information about the composition of chemical products. Therefore we kindly request the manufacturers of chemical products to continuously provide us with such information.

The product information is kept strictly confidential according to the Swedish secrecy law, 2009:400, 25 kap 9§ and the EU Regulation 1272/2008 (CLP) article 45.2, and is only used for evaluation of acute toxicity. In the information service the product composition is never revealed except in those cases it is of importance for medical reasons to inform a physician about the ingredients that will influence the treatment.

Information the Poisons Centre needs

We ask for information about all chemical products on the market, also the harmless ones. All the constituents present in the final product (except impurities less than 1 %) should be declared by their chemical names and CAS numbers. The use of group or class names is acceptable when all substances in the group have similar toxicological properties e.g. anionic surfactants, non-ionic surfactants (but not cationic surfactants), enzymes, perfumes or colours.
All the constituents that are classified as very toxic, toxic, corrosive or harmful should be declared with the actual concentration. For other ingredients we can accept the following concentration intervals 0-1%, 1-5%, 5-10%, 10-20%, 20-30%, 30-50%, 50-75%, and over 75%. It is also important to provide the pH value if appropriate. Other characteristics of the product that could be of importance when giving advice in poisoning cases are colour, solubility, the size and design of the package etc.

Please make sure that the name of the product in the product information is exactly the same as on the package. This is very important since it is the product name that is indicated when calling the Poisons Centre after poisoning incidents.

To facilitate for the Poisons Centre in handling product information, please specify the field of application of the products (e.g. cleaning agent, paint, sealing compound) and also whether they are for household or industrial use.

How to send the product information

On the right you will find product information forms as well as instructions on how to send product information electronically.
The Poisons Centre prefers to get the information electronically but of course it is also possible to send paper copies.
The Poisons Centre also accepts Safety Data Sheets and similar documents as long as they include “Information the Poisons Centre needs” mentioned above.

Updating the product information

It is important to send updated product information to the Poisons Centre if the product changes. However, if concentrations of the ingredients change within the intervals and the name of the product is the same, it is not necessary to send any new information.

Emergency telephone number on safety data sheets

In order to use the telephone number to the Poisons Centre as an emergency number on safety data sheets, the company has to provide the Poisons Centre with adequate information according to what is written above, under the heading “Information the Poisons Centre needs”.
The number to use is “112 – ask for Poisons Information” (in Swedish this will be: “112 – begär Giftinformation”).

Addresses where to send the product information:

giftinformation@gic.se
or
Giftinformationscentralen
Swedish Poisons Information Centre
S-171 76 Stockholm
SWEDEN

Questions should be addressed to:
Karin Feychting
Phone: +46 8 610 05 86
E-mail: karin.feychting@gic.se