Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)

MSDSs are a very important aspect of both Hazard Communication and Laboratory Standards. MSDSs are required to provide information an individual needs to know about the hazards of materials being handled.

It is our responsibility to make these sheets available to faculty, staff, and students. It is important to also provide training so individuals can understand these MSDSs. However, individuals must take responsibility for reading MSDSs if the intent of the Hazard Communication and Laboratory Standards is to be accomplished. The MSDSs are often difficult to read and understand. The intent of this section is to make MSDSs more understandable by describing the type of content provided in them.

MSDSs do not have a standard format, although the Federal government requires MSDSs to contain the following information.

Information found on most MSDSs:

Terms and Acronyms

Action Level, AL -- Certain OSHA regulations take effect if this exposure level (conc. in air) is reached. These regulations include workplace air analysis, employee training, medical monitoring, and record keeping. This level is about half of the permissible exposure limit.

American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, ACGIH -- This organization include professionals in government and education involved in occupational safety and health programs. One important function of this group is the determination and publication of recommended occupational exposure limits for chemical substances.

American National Standards Institute, ANSI -- This private organization identifies industrial and public national consensus standards. These standards relate to safe design and performance of equipment and practices

Ceiling, C -- This is the employee's exposure which shall not be exceeded at any time during the workday.

Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health, IDLH -- These values are used to determine the appropriate respirators for hazardous chemicals. These values stand for the maximum concentration from which a worker could escape within 30 minutes without any escape-impairing symptoms or irreversible health effects in the event of a respirator failure.

Lethal Concentration 50, LC-50 -- This concentration of a hazardous material in air is expected to kill 50% of a group of test animals when given as a single respiratory exposure in a specific time period.

Lethal Concentration Low, LC-LO -- This value indicates the lowest concentration of a substance in air that caused death in humans or laboratory animals. The value may represent periods of exposure that are less than 24 hours(acute) or greater than 24 hours (subacute and chronic).

Lethal Dose 50, LD-50 -- The single dose, other than inhalation, that causes death in 50% of an animal population from exposure to a hazardous substance.

Lethal Dose Low, LD-LO --The lowest dose, other than inhalation, that caused death in humans or animals.

Milligrams per Cubic Meter of Air, mg/m^3 -- This unit of measuring concentrations of particulate (minute dust-like particles).

National Fire Protection Association, NFPA -- This group of fire protection personnel established a rating system used on many labels of hazardous materials. The label consist of a diamond divided into four sections.

The sections represent the following categories:

Health
Flammability
Reactivity
Special Precautions

National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH -- This agency of the Public Health Service test and certifies respiratory and air-sampling devices. It recommends to OSHA exposure limits for hazardous substances. It also investigates incidents and researches occupational safety.

Parts Per Million, ppm -- This is a common unit of concentration of gas or vapor in air expressed with many exposure limits. It is defined as parts of gas or vapor per million parts of air by volume at 25 degrees C and 1 atm of pressure.

Permissible Exposure Limit, PEL -- This is one of the most important OSHA limits used. It is defined as the allowable limit for air contaminant in which workers may be exposed day after day without adverse health effects.

Recommended Exposure Limit, REL -- The highest allowable air concentration that will not injure a person.

Short-Term Exposure Limit, STEL -- The 15-minute time-weighted average exposure which must not be exceeded at any time during a work day.

Synergy -- The combined effects of more than one hazardous material resulting in more damage than the additive effects of each material.

Threshold Limit Value, TLV -- The air concentration levels of hazardous substances to which workers may be repeatedly exposed day after day without adverse health effects.

Threshold Limit Value-Time-Weighted Average, TLV-TWA -- Time-weighted average concentration for an 8-hour workday and a 40-hour work week in which a worker may be repeated exposed without adverse health effects.

Threshold Limit Value-Short-Term Exposure Limit, TLV-STEL -- This is the maximum concentration which workers can be exposed for 15 minutes continuously without adverse health affects. Only four of these 15-minutes exposures are permitted per day and must have 60 minutes between exposures.The TLV-TWA still must not be exceeded.

Threshold Limit Value-Ceiling -- This is a defined boundary unlike TLVs which are guidelines. It is the concentration which should never be exceeded at any time during the working exposure.

Time Weighted Average -- The workers average airborne exposure in any 8-hour work day of a 40 hour work week which should not be exceeded.

Toxic Concentration Low, TC-LO -- This is the lowest concentration of an airborne substance in which humans or animals have been exposed that resulted with any toxic effects in humans or produced any tumors or adverse reproductive effects in animals or humans.

Toxic Dose Low, TD-LO -- The lowest dose of a hazardous substance introduced by means other than inhalation over a given time period that has been reported to produce toxic effects in humans or produced any tumors or adverse reproductive effects in animals or humans.

Chemical Product and Manufacturer Identification

Product or Substance Identification

The name, address and telephone of the company that produced the material is listed in this first section. The date the MSDS was issued and the name of the material or chemical are found here also. The law requires the name of the material on the MSDS to appear exactly the same, including spelling, as on the container.

Many times companies produce many grades or parities of a chemical. They may use a generic MSDS to cover all the grades if they list the various grades on the MSDS. This section usually includes any known synonyms and/or foreign spellings of the chemical.

Most companies also include product numbers, CAS number, and other identifying number in this section.

Some companies include but are not required by law additional information like:

Chemical Family
Molecular Formula
Molecular Weight
Precaution Labeling
NFPA Rating
CERCLA Ration
Safety Storage Code

Composition - Information on Ingredients

Section 2 of the standard MSDS contains information concerning the product's individual hazardous chemicals and their relative percentages. Many products contains mixtures of chemicals. All ingredients that meet OSHA Hazard Communication standard criteria of a hazardous chemicals must be identified here. In addition, the materials's corresponding Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) numbers must also be listed.

The manufacturer has several options as to how the ingredients may be listed. The active ingredients regulated under Federal, state, or local regulations must be listed. The nonhazardous ingredients may or may not be included. Some complex mixtures recognized as a single substance may be listed as a single component. "Trade secrets" are protected and may be listed as such instead of identifying each component. Suppliers of these "trade secret" substances must still provide health hazard data on the MSDS and additional information to safety professionals who have a documentable need to know.

This section should include the material's exposure limits if they are known. Several organizations recognized by OSHA have developed exposure limits for a variety of hazardous substances. Two prominent groups are ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists) and NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health). Its worth noting that the combination of exposures to more than one hazardous chemical is far greater than exposure to individual hazardous chemicals.

Exposure to certain hazardous materials may be acceptable, but only for periods of time not to exceed certain time limits and at concentration no greater than certain levels. This section list these values so the employee handling the hazardous materials knows what precautions, (protective equipment, ventilation, etc) should be taken so as not to exceed these exposure limits. The employee can refer to later sections in the MSDS which describes measures that can help reduce possible exposure.

Physical Data

This section of the MSDS should provide the necessary physical data to identify a substance. The following physical data is listed in many of the MSDSs but varies depending on whether the substance is a gas, liquid, or solid at room temperature.

boiling point, ( degree C and/or degree F);
melting point ( degree C and/or degree F);
vapor pressure, (mmHg @ 20 degree C);
vapor density, (air = 1);
viscosity;
specific gravity, (water =1);
evaporation rate, (with butyl acetate = 1);
solubility in water, (usually by percent);
solubility in other solvents, (listing solvents substance will dissolve in);
volatiles by volume, (percent that evaporates);
odor threshold, (ppm);
flash point, (many MSDSs list this in Fire and Explosion Data section);
upper and lower explosion limits, (many MSDSs list this in Fire and Explosion Data section);

An important feature of this section is the appearance and odor description. This description should give the reader an idea of what the chemical looks and smells like at room temperature.

By knowing the physical properties of a substance, the person may be aware of how the material will behave at different temperatures or when it is exposed to water. If the chemical has the properties of low boiling point, high vapor pressure and high volitility, then it is likely to evaporate quickly and therefore present a inhalation hazard. If the chemical is also flammable or toxic, great care must be taken handling this material to prevent fire or overexposure by inhalation.

Fire-Fighting Measures

Fire-Fighting and Explosion Measures

This section of the MSDS describes the basic fire-fighting measures. This should include the fire and explosive properties of the material and the proper extinguishing materials. The precautions and safety procedures to effectively put out the fire are described here. This is important because knowing the flammable properties along with the chemical and physical properties provide a good indication of how dangerous the material is in a fire situation.

Important flammable properties listed here should include:

Flash Point -- the lowest temperature at which a flammable liquid gives off enough vapor to form an ignitable mixture with air. In other words, the lowest temperature at which a liquid can ignite if a spark is present. Liquids with very low flash points are dangerous fire hazards (e.g., ethyl ether -49 C).
Autoignition Temperature -- the temperature at which the liquid will set itself on fire without a flame or spark.
Lower Explosive Limit -- the minimum concentration of a flammable gas or vapor (% by vol. in air) in which an explosion can occur if a flame or spark is present.
Upper Explosive Limit -- the maximum concentration of a flammable gas or vapor (% by vol. in air) in which an explosion can occur if a flame or spark is present.
Hazardous Products of Combustion -- In most fires, the greatest danger to human life is not the heat of the flames, but the toxic smoke that can fill the area. All the anticapited products of combustion are listed here. Fires of the laboratory are far more dangerous than common fires because the toxic fumes are often far more dangerous.

All MSDS describes the fire extinguishing media in this section. Selecting the appropriate fire extinguisher is critical in an emergency situation. In Denison's laboratories, usually carbon dioxide and dry chemical extinguishers are available. These extinguisher are appropriate with most laboratory fires except for combustible metals, (e.g., sodium and potassium) and metal halides, (e.g., lithium aluminum hydride, sodium hydride).

Reactivity hazards that enhance the fire and the explosion potential are also found here.

Hazardous Identification and First Aid Measures

Health Hazards and First Aid

This section is divided into two main parts. One part describes a summary of the most important immediate concerns for emergency personnel. The other part gives information on the potential adverse health effects and symptoms associated with exposure to this material. Some MSDSs have a separate section for each of these catagories.

Health Hazards

If OSHA or other important organizations, (International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC; National Toxicology Program, NTP), has determine that the material is a carcinogen, teratogen, mutagen, or toxic to aquatic life or danger to the environment, then this information may be found in this section. This information may also be found in some other sections of the MSDS.

If this information is described in this section, then several important factors must be included:

Routes of Entry -- A hazardous materials may enter the body through the skin or the eye, by inhalation, or ingestion.
Acute Health Effects -- The adverse health effects from short-term exposure.
Chronic Health Effects -- The detrimental health conditions which may result from long-term exposure.
Symptoms of Exposure -- A description of how a victim of exposure might look or act like.
Medical Conditions Aggravated By Exposure -- These terms are not easily recognized by non-medical personnel.
Target Organs -- Some materials harm a particular organ of the body — heart, liver, brain, etc.

By reading the MSDS of a hazardous material you are going to be using, you might prevent sickness or even death resulting from improper exposure. Chronic effects may occur years after exposure even if the you did not experience discomfort at the time of exposure.

The principal route of entry into the body is by inhalation. Many hazardous substances do not have a strong unpleasant order but still can harm the body. For example, hydrogen cyanide which has the faint smell of almonds was used in the "gas chamber". Many organic hazardous chemicals can quickly fatigue your sense of smell so you are no longer aware of the concentration of the vapors you might be breathing.

Many hazardous substances can be absorbed through the skin and into body tissue or the bloodstream. These substances can accumulate in a particular organ or tissue. After repeated absorption, the substances can accumulate to such a concentration that the organ may fail. The eye is especially venerable to corrosive hazardous chemicals. Permanent damage or even blindness can result from liquid splashes or solution vapors.

First-Aid

If accidental exposure were to occur, then this section is valuable to determine the immediate first aid response. This section should indicate the proper first aid treatment for accidental exposure by inhalation, skin, eye, and ingestion. Almost in every MSDS the first statement says, "Call a Physician."

Skin and Eye Exposure -- In most cases, skin and eye exposure are standard, i.e., "immediately flush eye or skin with plenty of water for at least 15 minutes."
Inhalation -- Inhalation is also usually standard too, i.e., "remove to fresh air, if not breathing, give artificial respiration, if breathing is difficult, give oxygen."
Ingestion -- The first aid response to ingestion does vary. One would believe that inducing vomiting would be the standard response. However, in many cases, this would result in greater respiratory damage than the damage by ingestion. Often times, an antidote may be listed which can be administered by a lay person or a trained medical personnel.

Stability and Reactivity

The information in this section should list circumstances if the material is subjected to could be hazardous.

This information should include:

Stability at room temperatures and atmospheric pressure
Conditions to avoid, (e.g., elevated temperatures, moisture, etc).
Incompatibles, (chemicals that react violently with material or releases dangerous by-products).
Decomposition products.
Polymerization, (reaction in which one or more small molecules combine to form large molecules that may release large amounts of energy or burst the container).

Whenever you are handling a hazardous material, you must be familiar with the above information to avoid possible accidents resulting from not knowing the circumstances to avoid. You can handled the material more safely if you know how it will react to changes in temperature or contact with other materials.

If a material in not stable at room temperature, then you must store it in a refrigerator. If one of the conditions to avoid is sources of ignition, then do not use this material in the laboratory where burners are being used. If the material is sensitive to moisture, then consider storing it in a desiccator. If the chemical reacts with metals, do not store it on metals shelves. If the material reacts with natural rubber, then natural rubber gloves should not be worn when handling this material.

Hazardous materials may react with many substances to produce dangerous by-products. The example most people know about is the result of mixing bleach with ammonia. Both of these cleaning solution can be used safely if not mixed. But hydrogen chloride (toxic irritating gas) is released when sodium hypochlorite (bleach) is combined with ammonia.

Cyanide salts react with acids to produce the deadly gas of hydrogen cyanide. This real example shows how a accidental spill could have resulted in a major catastrophe. A three kilogram container of potassium cyanide was stored on the floor below several large bottles of glacial acetic acid. If one of the bottles of acetic acid had been knocked off its shelf, and broke on impact with the floor and the container of potassium cyanide, then the reaction with potassium cyanide could easily have caused the death of anyone entering the lab. These two chemicals should never be stored in close proximity.

Accidental Release Measures

When a hazardous material is accidentally spilled, the emergency can be minimized if proper response is immediate. Therefore, reviewing this section before using a chemical will prepare you in the event of a hazardous spill. This section describes evacuation procedures, containment and cleanup techniques, and other emergency advice like personal protective equipment and respirators.

Information from this section will allow you to plan for emergency response, training of individuals using the hazardous material, and making available in the laboratory necessary equipment to quickly contain and clean up a spill or leak.

In most cases, if the spill is small, the advice in this section can be very useful. However, if the spill is large, evacuate the area and call Emergency 911. A Hazmat unit will be sent to deal with this emergency. Make sure that the doors of the affected area are closed and people are posted at them to prevent anyone from entering. Also be prepared to describe to the Hazmat personnel the substance spilled and the extent of the spill.

Handling and Storage Measures

This section provides safe storage and handling information for employees and employers. General handling precautions and practices are described to prevent release into the environment and overexposure during contact with the material. Also this information will help you minimize continued contact after handling. For example, wash hands with soap and water after handling especially before eating.

The storage of chemical reagents vary depending on the chemical's reactivity and flammability. The necessary storage conditions to avoid damage to containers, contact with incompatible materials and resulting dangerous reactions, evaporation, decomposition, and flammable and explosive atmospheres in the storage area are detailed in this section. For example, protect against sunlight, refrigerate, keep container tightly closed, and store separate from oxidizing materials.

Exposure Controls/Personal Protection

The intent of this section is to reduce exposure of the laboratory worker to the hazardous chemical. Exposure controls include engineering controls like fume hoods, ventilation, and glove boxes. Exposure controls also includes administration controls such as training, labeling and warning devices.

This sections provides the important information about personal protective equipment (PPE). Some of the PPEs are respirators, safety goggles, gloves, aprons and boots. The PPE recommendations include both normal use and emergency response during a fire, spill, leak, or accidental release. The description of the PPE often include details about what materials the PPE should be made of or the best type of respiration for vapor of the hazardous chemical.

Sometimes exposure limits like the OSHA PELs or ACGIH TLVs are listed here rather than in section 2. This information is important because there are many types of PPEs available and the employer should have available the PPE that will provide the best protection for their employees. The employees are responsible to use the PPE provided to ensure safe working conditions.

To maintain a safe exposure level, the engineer controls are extremely important. If a laboratory has poor ventilation, then the exposure limits can be exceeded if the chemical is used repeatedly throughout the day. If the fume hood is cluttered with unnecessary items, the hood will not pull the vapors away properly. Therefore, the administrative controls come into play here. The trained professional (e.g., industrial hygienist, safety engineer, chemistry professor) should determine how to most effectively minimize hazards through exposure controls.

Toxicological Information

Information concerning the hazardous chemical's toxicity is listed in this section. However, this information can be listed in other sections of the MSDS like the Health Hazard and First Aid section. This information reflects animal testing, and if known, human data if accidental human poisoning occurred and the amounts of exposure are known. This toxicity data is mainly intended for medical professionals, occupational health and safety professionals, and toxicologist.

The data may includes acute, subchronic and chronic exposures through various routes, (e.g., inhalation [inhal], ingestion [oral], intraperitoneal [ipr], subcutaneous [scu]). LD50 (lethal dose that kills 50% of lab animals expressed in milligrams per kilograms) is used to represent oral, ipr, scu exposures. LC50 (lethal concentration in air of a substance that kills 50% of lab animals) is used to express inhalation exposures. Also LDLo and LCLo are sometimes listed and these values depict the lowest dose or concentration known to have cause death in a lab animal. The lab animals can include rats, mice, rabbit, and guinea pigs.

The toxicity section also describe some information in layman's terms, (for example, if the chemical is a carcinogen or corrosive to the skin). The information in this section is valuable in evaluating the potential health risks involved in handling the hazardous material. In most cases, human evidence of health effects in exposed populations is not available so professionals must rely of data collected from lab animal exposures.

Ecological Information

Not all MSDSs have this section. If it does, this helps the Environmental professional or Hazmat personnel in evaluating the effect a chemical may have if it is released into the environment. The person using the chemical may use this information to determine waste treatment practices.

Ecotoxicity data may have information on acute and long-term toxicity to fish and invertebrates, plant and microorganisms toxicity, and toxicity to animals drinking water contaminated with the chemical. Chemical behavior in air, soil, and water may include persistence and degradation, soil mobility, bioaccumulation, and photolytic stability. All of this is important in evalutating the environmental impact of a chemical in the event of major spill or determining whether or not a chemical can be safely disposed of in a landfill.

Disposal Considerations

The person responsible for waste management activities on campus will certainly find this section important so the university can stay within the law when removing the chemical from on-sight. However, the lab worker using the reagent should also be aware of disposal aspects of the chemical so he/she does not inadvertently dispose of the waste in an improper manner.

This section usually contains information on special disposal methods and waste managements options like recycling. Also included are limitations directed by Federal, state, or local governments. Other important listings are government waste classifications like RCRA (ignitable waste[I]; corrosive waste[C], reactive waste[R], toxicity characteristic waste[E], acute hazardous waste[H], and toxic waste[T]) and EPA identification numbers and descriptions. This information is necessary for the waste manager to stay within the law when disposing of chemical waste. If a wrong EPA ID number is used when a chemical is removed from campus, the result could be very costly.

An example of this occurred when a university in Ohio had a licensed waste removal company come on campus and remove their hazardous waste. The company put an incorrect EPA waste identification on one of the waste container that contained two bottles of the same chemical. The container was landfilled according to the appropriate methods for that EPA waste ID. Two years later, the EPA, while checking the manifest for that particular waste removal, discovered that the ID was wrong and the chemical should never have been placed in a landfill. EPA imposed a fine of $10,000 per day for each bottle for the length of time that container had been landfilled along with the cost of recovering the container from the landfill.

Remember, CERCLA holds the generator of a waste responsible forever if cleanup is required. The university had to pay dearly for a mistake actually committed by a contracted waste removal company.

Transport Information

Transporation Information

The shipping of hazardous materials is regulated by the Department of Transporation (DOT). This section provides the important DOT shipping name, ID (UN or NA numbers), hazard class, and labels required to be on the container.

This section is valuable if the hazardous material will be shipped from this campus. Before shipping, the carton must be properly labelled with the appropriate placards and ID names and numbers. If an accident occurred while shipping, these numbers can be referenced by hazmat personnel doing the clean up.

Regulatory Information

This section provides the regulatory information for employers and regulatory compliance personnel. These regulations include: OSHA, TSCS, SARA, CERCLA, and CWA. Reportable quantities for spills, storage, and shipping can be listed also. Finally, international regulations and state and local regulations should be found in this section.

Other Information

This section is intended to be use for any addition important information not listed in other sections. This can include: references, keys/legends, creation and revision dates, and hazardous ratings such as the NFPA codes.

The information here can complete the process of providing all necessary information to the person reading the MSDS.

Many MSDSs include a disclaimer in this section as well.

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