OSHA HazCom 2024 Trade Secret SDS Requirements: What Changed and What You Must Disclose

OSHA's updated Hazard Communication Standard (29 CFR 1910.1200, effective July 19, 2024) changed how trade secret ingredients are disclosed in Section 3 of a Safety Data Sheet. Under HazCom 2024, when a manufacturer claims confidential business information to protect a precise ingredient concentration, a prescribed concentration range must be disclosed in its place — where HazCom 2012 allowed that field to be left blank or filled with "proprietary." The change affects every SDS with an active trade secret claim on a concentration.

Three things to take from it:

• A prescribed range is now mandatory in Section 3 wherever the exact concentration is claimed as a trade secret. A blank field or vague language is no longer compliant.
• The ranges are a fixed list of 13 published in the standard. You select from it; you do not invent your own.
• The exact formulation still stays protected. Non-compliant trade secret disclosure, however, is a documented SDS citation trigger.

What HazCom 2012 Required vs. What HazCom 2024 Requires

Under HazCom 2012

29 CFR 1910.1200(i) let chemical manufacturers withhold the specific identity of a trade secret ingredient, and in practice that extended to withholding concentration data. An SDS could list an ingredient as "proprietary blend" with the concentration shown as "trade secret" or simply omitted. The hazards still had to be communicated through GHS classification, but the quantitative gap was wide.

Under HazCom 2024

That gap is closed. Appendix D of 29 CFR 1910.1200 — the mandatory Safety Data Sheet appendix — now states that when a concentration or concentration range is withheld as a trade secret, the prescribed ranges in § 1910.1200(i)(1)(iv)–(vi) must be used. Section 3 must therefore carry a real range for every ingredient whose precise concentration is claimed as confidential.

The 13 Prescribed Concentration Ranges

These are hard to find in the regulation, so here they are in full. Paragraph (i)(1)(iv) of 29 CFR 1910.1200 lists exactly these:

Range	Range
0.1 – 1%	15 – 40%
0.5 – 1.5%	30 – 60%
1 – 5%	45 – 70%
3 – 7%	60 – 80%
5 – 10%	65 – 85%
7 – 13%	80 – 100%
10 – 30%

Three rules govern how you pick one:

• Use the narrowest prescribed range that contains your actual concentration — paragraph (i)(1)(v). An ingredient present at roughly 12% is disclosed as 7–13%, not 10–30% and certainly not 1–30%.
• If your actual range spans two prescribed ranges and falls between 0.1% and 30%, you may disclose a single combined range made from two consecutive prescribed ranges.
• You may always go narrower. Paragraph (i)(1)(vi) permits a range tighter than the prescribed one, which is worth considering where a narrower disclosure costs you nothing commercially and reads better to a customer.

A common misreading is that OSHA publishes a maximum allowable range width to calculate against. It does not. The list above is the menu.

Why OSHA Made This Change

The change addresses a real gap in hazard communication. Health and safety professionals, emergency responders and treating clinicians need to know not only which chemicals are present but roughly at what concentration. Under HazCom 2012, an SDS listing a proprietary solvent as "trade secret" with no concentration data gave a physician essentially nothing to work with.

The range requirement is the compromise: it gives workers and responders medically and toxicologically meaningful information while keeping the exact formulation away from competitors. The narrowest-range rule is what stops the disclosure from being technically present but practically useless.

Practical Implications for SDS Authors

Review every active trade secret claim

Audit your SDS library for active confidentiality claims on ingredient concentrations. Any sheet that currently shows a concentration as "proprietary," "trade secret," "not disclosed" or blank has to be reviewed against the range requirement.

Choose the range

For each ingredient, find the narrowest prescribed range that contains the true concentration. Where the true range straddles two consecutive prescribed ranges below 30%, decide with your regulatory or legal team whether to combine them or to disclose the tighter single range.

Update Section 3

Replace the withheld entry with the compliant range and make the notation unambiguous — "7–13% (trade secret concentration range)" or equivalent. Update the revision date and record the change in Section 16.

Keep your substantiation current

HazCom 2024 did not relax the substantiation requirement. You must still be able to show that a claimed trade secret meets the standard's definition of confidential business information and is not simply a convenient way to avoid disclosure.

Emergency Responder Access Provisions

One thing HazCom 2024 did not change is emergency access. Under 29 CFR 1910.1200(i)(3), a treating physician or nurse may request the specific identity of a trade secret chemical in a medical emergency, and the manufacturer must disclose it immediately. That provision stands untouched. What the range requirement adds is that a responder reading the SDS in the field now has usable quantitative information before invoking emergency disclosure at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

What concentration ranges does OSHA allow under HazCom 2024?

OSHA prescribes 13 fixed ranges in 29 CFR 1910.1200(i)(1)(iv), listed in full above. You choose one — you do not calculate your own. Paragraph (i)(1)(v) requires the narrowest prescribed range that contains your actual concentration, and permits a single range built from two consecutive prescribed ranges where the true range falls between 0.1% and 30% and does not fit inside one of them.

Does the concentration range requirement apply to ingredient identity or only to concentration?

Only to concentration. If the identity of an ingredient is validly claimed as a trade secret, you may still withhold it. What you can no longer withhold is the concentration: a prescribed range must appear in Section 3 for that ingredient.

As a distributor, must we verify our supplier's trade secret ranges are compliant?

Yes. Under 29 CFR 1910.1200 a distributor must pass compliant SDSs downstream. An SDS that still shows a blank concentration or the word "proprietary" after the applicable deadline is non-compliant, and distributing it puts the obligation on you. Request an updated SDS from the supplier, or have a compliant version authored.

Can OSHA require us to disclose our trade secret concentration?

Yes, in defined circumstances that HazCom 2024 did not change: to treating healthcare professionals in a medical emergency under 29 CFR 1910.1200(i)(3), to OSHA officials during an inspection, and to health professionals who establish a need in non-emergency occupational exposure situations. The range requirement does not expand that authority — it makes a usable range available in the SDS itself.

Trade secret SDS compliance takes regulatory judgment

Getting concentration ranges right means reading 29 CFR 1910.1200(i)(1)(iv)–(vi) correctly and knowing how far you can narrow a disclosure before it costs you commercially. Quantum SDS has authored Safety Data Sheets since 1985 — over 100,000 of them — including trade secret SDS compliance for U.S. manufacturers and importers. If you would rather not audit the library yourself, our SDS authoring services will do it for you.