Translate a safety data sheet into German

What German changes in an SDS

An SDS follows the same 16-section structure across the EU (REACH Annex II), but German has its own established headings. The document is a Sicherheitsdatenblatt, often abbreviated to SDB, and Section 1 becomes Abschnitt 1: Bezeichnung des Stoffs bzw. des Gemischs und des Unternehmens.

• Signal words: "Danger" is Gefahr and "Warning" is Achtung, never Warnung or Vorsicht.
• H and P statements: their German wording is fixed by the CLP Regulation. H318 "Causes serious eye damage" reads Verursacht schwere Augenschäden.; H225 becomes Flüssigkeit und Dampf leicht entzündbar.
• Imperative style: precautionary and first-aid instructions use the infinitive, without the polite Sie. P280 becomes Schutzhandschuhe/Schutzkleidung/Augenschutz/Gesichtsschutz tragen.
• Numbers and dates: German uses a decimal comma, so 0.5 mg/m³ becomes 0,5 mg/m³, and dates are written 12.03.2024. An English source needs every value converted.

Length and tables: where German overflows

Sections 2, 8, 9 and 14 are mostly tables, and that is where German causes trouble. Compound nouns grow in a single block: "explosive limits" becomes Explosionsgrenzen, "auto-ignition temperature" Selbstentzündungstemperatur, "occupational exposure limit" Arbeitsplatzgrenzwert. A 25-letter word cannot break like three English words, so it widens the column or wraps awkwardly.

Every noun takes a capital letter (Hautkontakt, Augenspülung, Lagerung). That does not change length, but a casing error stands out immediately to a German reader. Expect the text to run noticeably longer than English, often 20 to 35%, and leave room in narrow cells, especially the property column in Section 9 and the Section 14 headings (Ordnungsgemäße UN-Versandbezeichnung).

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not

The sheet is handled by Curie, Manuce's scientific and medical specialist. You upload it as Word, PDF, Excel, RTF, HTML or another accepted format, and it comes back in the same format with its layout preserved: tables, section numbering, elements placed in the document. For an SDS of around 4,500 words (12 pages), the translation is delivered within minutes and kept in your client area.

Limits worth knowing:

• A scanned PDF with no selectable text is not read: you need the source file or a PDF exported from your authoring software.
• Manuce translates the content; it does not adapt it to German regulations. It adds no national exposure limits, no water hazard class and no German emergency number.
• Manuce does not produce sworn translations. If an authority or customer requires a version certified by a sworn translator, you will need one.

For a sheet supplied to customers or users, the Professional or Premium level fits; Essential is for understanding a sheet internally.

Adapting the data for German-speaking markets

REACH requires the SDS in the official language of the Member State where the product is placed on the market: German for Germany and Austria. But a sheet written for the UK, France or elsewhere carries national data that even an accurate translation does not turn into German data.

• Section 1.4: the emergency telephone number must be reachable from the destination country; a UK or French poison centre number is not enough.
• Section 8: in Germany the reference values are the Arbeitsplatzgrenzwerte (AGW) of TRGS 900, not the UK workplace exposure limits from EH40 or French VLEPs.
• Section 15: German sheets usually state the Wassergefährdungsklasse (WGK) and often the storage class (Lagerklasse, TRGS 510).

Update these data in the source file before translation, or have your regulatory lead complete them afterwards.

Preparing the file and checking the German version

• Send the latest revision, with the date and version number updated in Section 16.
• Identifiers are not translated: CAS and EC numbers, UN number, UFI code. Check they match character for character in the German version.
• Read the free sample before paying to judge the terminology; for a trade name that must stay unchanged, check it in the sample and then in the full translation.
• Compare every H, P and EUH statement with the official German text of CLP Annexes III and IV. One word is enough to depart from it: entzündlich instead of entzündbar, for example.
• Check the proper shipping name in Section 14 and the column widths in Sections 8 and 9.

In practice

1. Update the source file: emergency number, exposure limits, Section 15 data.
2. Upload the SDS as Word, text-based PDF or Excel and get a quote on the exact word count.
3. Read the free sample translated into German at your chosen level.
4. Download the translated file in its original format.
5. Check H and P statements, identifiers and table widths before supplying it.