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February 22, 2005

Updating MSDSs

UPDATING MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEETS: Twenty years ago, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration began requiring companies that manufacture or market hazardous chemicals to prepare and issue material safety data sheets (MSDSs). While most users find that the now ubiquitous safety sheets provide essential information and are mostly helpful, many of these users also question the quality and quantity of that information. For example, if you purchase deionized water for your lab, it might come with an MSDS, even though water is not considered a hazardous chemical. One study of 10 water MSDSs found a wide array of unusual information on them, such as the solubility of water in water; a recommendation to use protective gloves when handling; and advice to store the liquid in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area. For first aid when getting deionized water in the eyes, one sheet recommends, "Obtain medical attention in all cases." Another suggests, "Irrigate with water." Although most chemists reviewing an MSDS for deionized water would ignore the nonsensical information, the safety sheets could be confusing to nontechnical users, such as emergency first responders or production workers in firms that simply follow chemical recipes to formulate their products. More seriously, poorly prepared MSDSs with inaccurate or contradictory information on hazardous chemicals have been cited as a contributing factor in several fatal U.S. chemical industry accidents. In its response to mounting criticism, OSHA has undertaken several measures that are expected to improve the safety sheets. In the works are a new training program on how to prepare MSDSs properly and the creation of a quality-control mechanism. Separately, a "globally harmonized" hazard communication system with a safety sheet similar to an MSDS is being sponsored by the United Nations. OSHA has indicated that oversight of MSDSs would be complicated and cumbersome and thus not practical. One problem is that there are 650,000 different chemicals in more than 3 million workplaces in the U.S., including farms, automobile repair shops, small chemical production facilities, and sprawling petrochemical complexes. In 2004, the agency carried out nearly 40,000 workplace inspections and issued more than 7,300 citations for violations of the Hazard Communication Standard, although the focus of the citations was in general not MSDS accuracy or content. Another complicating issue is that chemical hazard communication in the U.S. is convoluted, with OSHA covering workplaces, the Department of Transportation regulating shipping, the Consumer Product Safety Commission regulating consumer products, and the Environmental Protection Agency covering pesticides. Each agency operates under different statutory mandates and has adopted different approaches to hazard communication requirements. Individual states also enforce compliance with their own standards, which must be at least as stringent as Federal standards. States carry out more inspections than the Federal government, however. Chemical & Engineering News, 02/07/05, pp. 24-26.

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