Translate a safety data sheet into Spanish

What Spanish changes in an SDS

In Spanish, an SDS becomes a ficha de datos de seguridad, abbreviated FDS. It keeps the same 16-section structure, but each element has an expected Spanish wording, and that is where the traps lie.

• Section headings follow the Spanish text of REACH, for example SECCIÓN 1: Identificación de la sustancia o la mezcla y de la sociedad o la empresa. A paraphrase, even an accurate one, looks careless to an inspector or an industrial customer.
• Hazard and precautionary statements have official Spanish versions in the CLP Regulation. H225 reads Líquido y vapores muy inflamables, and H318 reads Provoca lesiones oculares graves. P statements use the infinitive (Llevar guantes…), not the imperative.
• Signal words: ‘Danger’ becomes Peligro and ‘Warning’ becomes Atención. They must match the label.
• Numbers: Spain uses a decimal comma (densidad relativa: 0,79), whereas Mexico uses a decimal point. An English source needs checking here, especially in section 9.
• Length: Spanish usually runs longer than English. Narrow tables in sections 8, 9 and 14 can overflow.

Spain or Latin America: decide before you translate

For products placed on the EU market, REACH requires the SDS in the official language of the Member State, which for Spain is Spanish. Latin American countries apply the GHS through their own national rules. One Spanish translation does not automatically serve both sides of the Atlantic.

The differences concern content as much as language:

• Occupational exposure limits (section 8): Spanish SDSs cite VLA-ED and VLA-EC, the Spanish daily and short-term limit values. US, UK or other national limits should not simply be carried over.
• Emergency telephone number (section 1.4): this must be valid in the destination country. For Spain, it is usually the Servicio de Información Toxicológica.
• Vocabulary: safety glasses are gafas in Spain but often lentes or anteojos in Latin America. A control-room computer is an ordenador in Spain and a computadora in Latin America.

Choose your target market first, and update these data in the source where you can. The free sample shows you the variant and vocabulary used before you pay anything.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not

Your SDS is handled by Curie, Manuce's specialist engine for scientific and medical text. It handles substance names, exposure routes, symptoms and first-aid measures. The file comes back in its original format (Word, PDF, Excel, RTF and others) with the layout intact, so tables, pictograms embedded as images and section numbering stay where they were. A dozen-page SDS is typically delivered within minutes and kept in your client area.

What Manuce does not do:

• No sworn or certified translation: if an authority or customer requires a translation certified by a sworn translator, Manuce does not provide it.
• No regulatory adaptation: Manuce translates the text it receives. It does not reclassify the mixture, swap exposure limits for Spanish VLAs or change the emergency number. That content remains the responsibility of the SDS author.
• No scanned PDFs: an image-only SDS without selectable text cannot be read.

For an SDS going to Spanish customers or sites, the Professional or Premium levels are the right fit. Essential is enough to understand a supplier's Spanish SDS.

Preparing the file and checking the result

Start from the source file of your authoring tool (Word or RTF). Failing that, use a PDF exported with selectable text. Before uploading:

• update the Spain-specific data in the source: emergency number, VLAs, and the details of the EU-based supplier;
• leave some slack in the section 9 tables, particularly if the source is English.

When you receive the translation, check these first:

1. the H and P statements, word for word, against the Spanish CLP text;
2. the items that must not change: CAS and EC numbers, UN number, H/P codes and trade names;
3. the proper shipping name in section 14, against the Spanish edition of ADR;
4. consistency between Peligro or Atención and the label.

If a brand name or internal product code must stay untranslated, check it first in the free sample, then in the full translation.

In practice

1. Update country-specific data (emergency number, exposure limits) in the source.
2. Upload the SDS as Word, RTF or text-based PDF; the quote appears immediately.
3. Read the free sample to check headings, H and P statements and the Spanish variant.
4. Pay, then download the Spanish SDS in its original format.
5. Check H and P statements, section 14 and CAS numbers before distribution.