H Statements

Hazard Statements, or H Statements are part of the labelling information within GHS and CLP.  The short codes (H200 etc), which refer to the H Statement text, are considered to be part of the classification, see https://ttenvironmenta.wpengine.com/clp-knowledgebase/clp-ghs-classifications/ .

The full classification information does NOT appear on the label (unless it is placed there voluntarily), only the H statement (which can include the H code, but this is optional and often omitted to save space).

There are three types of H statement:

• H200s, covering physical hazards
• H300s, covering health hazards
• H400s, covering environmental hazards

List of CLP classifications and H Statements (GHS-only in italics): List of GHS-CLP classifications with full H Statements to 8th ATP and GHS Rev 7 v4.1 .

In most cases, there is a 1:1 relationship between the classification and H statement.  This means that the classification can be derived from the H statement information on the label.

However, in some circumstances there is more than one classification available for a particular H statement, e.g. H300, Fatal if swallowed can refer to either Acute Tox 1 oral, or Acute Tox 2 oral classifications.

In this situation, you can only find out the full classification from the Safety Data Sheet information.  (This makes CLP-GHS less useful to the end user than a CHIP label used to be, where it was always clear from the label what the hazard type and hazard level was).

A list of the differences between the H code and the rest of the CLP-GHS classification can be downloaded here: Differences between H codes v1.1 20-06-2017 .

CLP also requires some hazard information to be placed on CLP labels for materials with hazards not currently covered under GHS, and this is discussed in this knowledgebase article: EUH Statements 

Amending H Statements

H statements are complete sentences, which are not allowed to be altered in any way, and only a few are allowed to be combined together.  You cannot make up your own H statement text, as that does away with the consistency needed to ensure that hazards are understood by the reader.

Precedence of H Statements

There is very little precedence of H Statements, as most will be placed on the label.

• Omit H400 if H410 present,
• omit H318 if H314 present;
• use H410 if H400 and either H411, H412 or H413 applies.

In all cases where precedence of H Statements is used on the label (and placed in section 2.2 of the SDS), the full classification (including H codes) must be placed in section 2.1 of the SDS.