GHS stands for Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals. It is issued and actualised by the UN and may be taken over by the respective lawmakers - completely, partly or with extensions - into their national or regional legislation.

The EU did this by the Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 of 16 December 2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, amending and repealing Directives 67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC, and amending Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006.

In principle this EU-GHS or CLP Regulation (Classification, Labelling and Packaging) called regulation may already be applied, because it is immediately effective in all member states. In practice implementation will start with the expiring of the transition periods of 1 December 2010 for substances and 1 June 2015 for mixtures (=preparations). Manufacturers of mixtures should care about having classification-relevant substance data (e.g. provided by their raw material suppliers), since otherwise they have to classify their products too "conservatively".

Because the prescriptions for the compilation of Safety Data Sheets are given in Annex II of the Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH) an adaptation of the REACH Regulation will be passed soon, which addresses the CLP Regulation. For substances this adaptation makes the declaration of classification and labelling elements according to the new and the old legislation mandatory from 1 December 2010 until 1 June 2115. It will contain also some further descriptions on the structure and the content of the SDS, which have to be applied also to mixtures from 1 December 2010.

Because on 1 December 2010 the first deadline for REACH notification (a.o. for substances above 1000 t/a) will be exceeded, downstream users will then be confronted by their raw material suppliers with the first Exposure Scenarios, which establish the basis for their own Extended Safety Data Sheets.