Site Access Posters
Module: ChemIQ For: Admin, Manager
A site access poster is a printable QR code that lives on your warehouse wall, your spray-booth door, or your chemical-storage-room entrance. When an employee scans it with their phone, they see the SDS list for that specific site — no login, no app install, no typing. It's the operational answer to OSHA's "readily accessible during each work shift" requirement under 29 CFR 1910.1200(g)(8).
This page covers the full workflow: where to generate posters, the training acknowledgment Tellus asks for, what to expect on the printed page, the per-poster actions including the destructive ones (rotate and revoke), where to physically hang the posters, and the connectivity caveat you need to know about.
Where to Manage Posters
- Open ChemIQ from the main navigation
- Go to Public SDS Portal
- Click the Site Posters panel (alongside Portal Config, Portal Branding, and Emergency Contact)
The panel lists every site in your company, with the active posters under each site. Sites without posters show a Generate poster button; sites with posters show the active poster list plus the option to add more.
Pre-Flight Gates
Before you can generate a poster for a site, Tellus checks two things:
| Gate | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Site product list is not empty | At least one active inventory row exists for the site | Add chemicals to the site's inventory in ChemIQ |
| Emergency contact is valid | A 4-field contact record exists at the site OR company level | Configure the contact (see Setting Up Your Emergency Contact) |
The Generate Poster button stays disabled until both gates pass. Hover the button to see a tooltip explaining which gate is open.
The Training Acknowledgment Gate
Before Tellus generates the poster file, the panel asks one more question:
"Have employees at this site been trained on how to use this poster?"
Check the box only after employees have actually been briefed on what the poster is, how to scan it, and what to do if their phone is dead or out of signal. This is not just paperwork — 29 CFR 1910.1200(h)(3)(iv) requires training on emergency procedures, which includes how to access SDSs during an incident. If your inspector asks "how did you train workers to use this QR code?", you need an answer.
The acknowledgment becomes part of your training record. The Site Posters panel displays acknowledgment status under each poster (Trained — Mar 12, 2026 or Training pending). You can revisit and re-acknowledge anytime — for example, after new-hire onboarding or after a shift-supervisor turnover.
If you've integrated SafePath, the acknowledgment can be triggered as a one-click bulk assignment to all employees at the site. Otherwise, Tellus stores a standalone training record with your user ID, timestamp, and the site.
Connectivity Warning
Tellus shows a connectivity notice during poster generation:
"If this site has poor cellular coverage, paper SDS backup is required to satisfy OSHA's 'readily accessible' standard."
The site binder is delivered as a Progressive Web App (PWA). Once a phone has opened the binder over a working connection, the binder is cached on the device and remains accessible offline for up to 24 hours. After 24 hours without a successful server sync, the cache expires and the binder shows an "expired" message pointing the worker to call the emergency contact.
What this means in practice:
| Site connectivity | What works | What you still need |
|---|---|---|
| Strong cell signal at the poster location | Scans always load the latest data | Nothing extra |
| Spotty signal but phones can connect once per shift | Workers load the binder at start-of-shift, then it works offline all shift | Encourage workers to scan once per shift |
| Reliable connectivity but no Wi-Fi (e.g., a back warehouse) | Works fine once cached | Nothing extra |
| Dead zone — no signal, no Wi-Fi | Cache expires after 24 hours, then nothing loads | Paper SDS backup at the site |
The PWA is a backup — it does not replace OSHA's underlying requirement for an actual SDS to be accessible. In a dead-zone facility, paper or a local kiosk handles the worst-case scenario.
Generating a Poster
After the pre-flight gates pass and you've checked the training acknowledgment:
- Click
Generate poster - Optionally, add a label — e.g.,
Main Entrance,Mix Room,Building C. Labels let you keep multiple posters per site organized. - Click
Create
Tellus immediately:
- Generates a short, opaque site access token (e.g.,
Xk9mQ2pL) - Renders a QR-code PDF in the print-ready format you select
- Adds the new poster to the active list under that site
You're then taken to a poster detail row with three primary actions: Preview, Download PDF, and a … menu with the destructive options (Rotate token, Revoke).
Per-Poster Actions
Preview
Opens a modal showing the QR code at full size, the human-readable URL below it, and a render of how the printed PDF will look. Use this to sanity-check before sending the PDF to the printer.
Download PDF
Downloads a print-ready PDF in your chosen paper size:
| Size | When to use |
|---|---|
| Letter (8.5 × 11 in) | Default; works for most US printers; standard hanging size |
| Tabloid (11 × 17 in) | Larger workspaces where the poster sits across the room from the work area |
| Half-letter (5.5 × 8.5 in) | Mobile workspaces, mobile equipment, or shipping crates |
Each variant uses the same QR + URL + emergency-contact layout, scaled appropriately.
Rotate Token (Destructive)
Generates a new site access token for the same site and invalidates the old one. The old QR code stops working immediately — anyone scanning the old printed poster sees the "This poster has been deactivated" page until they're given a new printed copy.
Use Rotate Token when:
- A poster has been photographed and shared inappropriately (a contractor posts it on social media)
- A printed poster was stolen or removed from the site
- You suspect the QR has been redistributed outside your control
Important: Rotating the token does not change the site binder URL pattern — it changes only the token value. All printed copies of the old poster become non-functional the moment you click Rotate token. You will need to reprint and re-hang the new poster everywhere the old one was deployed.
Tellus shows a confirmation dialog with a clear warning before completing the rotation. There is no undo — once the new token is issued, the old one is permanently invalidated.
Revoke (Destructive)
Completely deactivates the poster. The URL returns the deactivated page with the emergency contact information still visible (so a worker who scans an old poster during an incident can still get a phone number to call). The poster is removed from the active list and archived.
Use Revoke when:
- The site itself is being closed
- The poster was issued in error
- The site's chemical inventory has changed so dramatically that a fresh poster is warranted
Like Rotate Token, Revoke is irreversible. Tellus shows a confirmation dialog.
What's on the Printed PDF
The poster is intentionally minimal — easy to read at a glance, hard to misread, and printable in black and white if needed.
| Element | What you see |
|---|---|
| QR code | Large, high-contrast, occupies the top half of the poster |
| Human-readable URL | Printed directly below the QR, in case the code is damaged or partially torn — workers can still type it into a phone |
| Site name + company name + your logo | Identifies which workplace the poster belongs to |
| Emergency contact block | Three lines: name (large), role label (smaller, italic), phone (large) — resolved from the site-level contact if set, otherwise the company-level contact |
| Bilingual scan instructions | English and Spanish at launch: "Scan for Safety Data Sheets / Escanee para Hojas de Datos de Seguridad" |
| "In an emergency, call 911 first" | Bilingual, always shown |
| Tellus footer + poster generation date | For audit reference — an inspector can see when the poster was last issued |
The emergency-contact block follows the atomic resolution rule (site overrides company, never mixed). See Setting Up Your Emergency Contact for the details.
Where to Place Posters
The poster is a compliance instrument, not signage. Where you hang it directly affects how well it does its job.
| Location | Why it works |
|---|---|
| At worker eye level | A poster mounted at 8 feet up is invisible during an actual emergency. Aim for 4-5 feet from floor — the same height as a fire extinguisher poster. |
| Near entry / exit points | Workers see the poster on the way in (mental priming) and on the way out (post-incident check). |
| Near chemical storage | The closer the poster is to where the chemicals live, the faster a worker can scan during a spill. |
| Inside the chemical storage room itself | If the room has cellular signal — best-case for an active-incident scan. |
| At spill kits | Co-locate with the absorbent + PPE that workers reach for during a spill. |
Avoid:
- Mounting above 7 feet (out of natural sightline)
- Mounting in employee-break areas only (irrelevant to active chemical work)
- Behind doors that get propped open (the poster vanishes from view when work is happening)
- Direct sun on the QR code (fades faster, scanner accuracy drops)
For larger facilities, generate multiple posters per site with distinct labels. A 50,000 sq-ft warehouse should not have one poster — it should have one at each section, each labeled with its location so you can track which is which.
Printing Tips
A few practical things that come up in customer support:
- Print on heavy stock — 80lb cover or higher. Standard office paper curls and tears within weeks in a warehouse environment.
- Laminate if your environment is wet, dusty, or chemical-rich. Lamination doesn't interfere with QR scanning.
- Don't shrink the poster below half-letter size. The QR resolution degrades and budget Android cameras may fail to read it.
- Black-and-white printing is fine — the QR code is high-contrast by design and the layout doesn't depend on color.
- Re-print annually even if nothing has changed — sun fade, grime, and small physical damage accumulate. The Tellus footer date helps you track this.
Monitoring Poster Usage
The Site Posters panel shows usage stats per poster:
| Stat | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Scan count | Cumulative scans since the token was created |
| Last scanned | Timestamp of the most recent scan |
| Training acknowledgment status | Whether you've recorded the training acknowledgment for this site |
A poster with zero scans after a month of being hung is either in the wrong location, employees don't know it exists, or the location has connectivity problems. Pull the report and reassess.
These stats also become your inspector-defense answer. "Workers actually scan our posters — here's the scan log per site" is a much stronger story than "we hung the poster, trust us."
What You Should NOT Do
A few common temptations that misuse the poster system:
- Don't reuse one site's poster for another site. The token resolves to the specific site's product list. Cross-using would surface the wrong inventory to workers.
- Don't share the URL outside the worksite. The token is the credential. Anyone with the URL gets the binder. If the URL leaves the site (photographed, posted, emailed), rotate the token immediately.
- Don't laminate over the URL with low-contrast tape. The human-readable URL below the QR is the recovery path when a phone camera fails. Keep it readable.
- Don't substitute the poster for paper SDSs in a known dead zone. The PWA cache caps at 24 hours. Paper still wins in zero-connectivity sites.
Permissions
| Role | Can view posters | Can generate / rotate / revoke |
|---|---|---|
| Admin | ✓ | ✓ |
| Manager | ✓ | ✓ (for sites they manage) |
| Program Coordinator | ✓ | — |
| Employee | — (they scan the QR, they don't manage it) | — |
Related
- Public SDS Portal — Overall feature overview
- Site Binder Page — What employees actually see when they scan the poster
- Setting Up Your Emergency Contact — Required gate; appears on every printed poster
- Sites & Locations — Where sites are configured
- SafePath Training — Where employee training acknowledgments live if you've integrated SafePath