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(Intro Music)
There's a new source of information in the workplace.
It's captured the attention of workers, supervisors,
Health and Safety Commitee members, First Aid personnel,
Fire Response Teams and more.
It's the WHMIS Material Safety Data Sheet, an MSDS.
There's safety information for everyone who works around controlled products:
health effects caused by overexposure, hazard evaluation for product handling,
storage or use, protective measures, emergency procedures.
It has similar information to its counterpart, the WHMIS Label, plus a lot more detail.
Your health, even your life, can depend on it.
You'll be looking at the MSDS in this segment:
its purpose, who is responsible for its content,
the basic rules for its design and some details of the information it must contain.
The MSDS is the second element of the WHMIS Information System,
and is meant to supplement the alert information provided on labels.
MSDSs are required reading and must be used in the development of safe work procedures.
Employers must ensure workers understand the content and act on it accordingly.
It's a WHMIS requirement.
One MSDS, however, cannot cover all the different hazards
encountered from one workplace to another.
Employers must transform data sheets into an active program of worker protection
that may include further instructions and written work procedures.
Employers will consult with the Health and Safety Committee
or a representative to develop these materials.
Most data sheets originate with suppliers,
who must provide employers with a current MSDS on or before the date of product sale.
The MSDS must be available in English and French,
and be no more than three years old.
Employers, in turn, must ensure up-to-date supplier MSDSs are obtained
the first time a controlled product is received in the workplace.
In addition, employers producing controlled products for use in the workplace
must produce data sheets that meet WHMIS standards.
The MSDS is used to update the WHMIS program as data sheet revisions become available.
However, if the supplier has gone out of business
or no longer produces the controlled product
and is unable to provide an updated data sheet,
the employer must add any new hazard information to the MSDS
on the basis of the ingredients already disclosed.
Information may be available, for example, through libraries,
trade publications or computer databases.
All data sheets must be made available in the workplace for use by workers
and Health and Safety Committees or representatives.
The data sheets must be easily accessible during each shift
in a place where a worker can study the information.
Data sheets may be stored on computer
if the necessary steps have been taken to ensure easy access.
Any design of MSDS may be adopted as long as some basic rules are followed.
An MSDS must display a minimum of nine sections of content,
covering approximately 60 items of information.
None of the nine sections can be left blank.
If information for a section is either not available or not applicable,
then the data sheet must indicate that fact.
The abbreviation NA is unacceptable,
where it is necessary to distinguish between the two terms.
The nine sections must have headings that cover product information,
hazardous ingredients, physical data, fire and explosion hazard, reactivity data,
toxicological properties, preventive measures,
first aid measures and preparation information.
In this example of an acceptable data sheet format,
the sequence of sections follows a natural process.
Sections One through Three: Product identification and recognition,
Sections Four through Six: Risk evaluation,
Section Seven: Preventive measures
and Section Eight: First Aid measures.
In Section One, Product Identification and Use,
the product identifier must be identical with the identifier on the product label.
If a data sheet applies to more than one product,
all label identifiers should appear on the data sheet.
The Product Identification Number or PIN is a number which may also appear
on labels and placards when dangerous goods are being transported.
They are of assistance to fire departments and other Emergency Response personnel.
The Product Use section specifies the intended product use.
Other uses may pose other risks.
For example, a solvent intended for degreasing tanks
may pose a significant risk to workers if used as a manual cleaning agent
because it evaporates easily.
The manufacturer and supplier name, address and emergency telephone number
are useful for obtaining additional product information.
The emergency telephone numbers should be operational for three years
from the MSDS production date.
A change in an emergency phone number will mean an MSDS update.
Section Two, Hazardous Ingredients, provides information on the identity,
concentration and acute toxicity for ingredients in a controlled product.
This section must disclose any ingredient which meets any one of three criteria:
if it is present at a concentration of one-tenth of a percent or more
and is classified as a cancer-causing agent or lung sensitizer
or if it could have various effects on reproduction,
if the ingredients is in any other controlled product
that is present at a concentration of at least one percent,
or if the ingredient is included on the Ingredient Disclosure List
and is present in a concentration equal to or more than
the concentration shown on the list.
The list, which contains about 1,700 entries,
is used only to help with this section of the data sheet.
It must never be used for classification.
Copies of the list are available from regulatory agencies.
The LD50 is a measure of a substance's immediate toxicity.
It is the lethal dose of a substance expected to cause the death
of 50 percent of an animal population, such as rabbits, rats or mice,
when administered into the mouth or applied to the skin.
The LC50 refers to the concentration of a product in air
required to do the same thing when inhaled by a test animal.
The key point to remember here is that the smaller the LD or LC50 number,
the more lethal the substance is.
The LD50 numbers may seem abstract.
To put them into perspective, consider this:
a few tablespoons of a product
with an LD50 number of 500 milligrams per kilogram,
the cut off were including products in WHMIS
in terms of immediate and serious toxic effect,
could kill the average person, if swallowed.
Section Three, Physical Data,
provides a physical description of the product.
Physical state identifies the product
as a gas, liquid or solid at room temperature.
That's important information for understanding the difficulty of containing the product.
Odour threshold indicates the minimum amount of chemical in the air that you can smell.
The ability of a worker to safely recognize the presence of a product in air
is determined by the odour threshold and the exposure limit for the chemical.
Exposure limits are maximum limits of exposure to the substance in air.
They are set by regulatory agencies to help protect workers
from experiencing any ill health effects.
A product has good warning properties
if you can smell the product at levels below the exposure limit,
and poor warning properties if you can't detect it until it is above the limit.
For example, chlorine,
which has an exposure limit of one part per million
and an odour threshold of one-tenth of a part per million
has good warning properties.
On the other hand, wood alcohol or methanol,
which has an exposure limit of 200 parts per million,
but may not be detected in air until the level of 6,000 parts per million,
has poor warning properties.
Odour thresholds must be used with caution when evaluating warning properties
because human response to odour varies.
Properly used, however, odour thresholds must be considered
when selecting respiratory protection.
It is dangerous to use air-filtering respirators for protection
against products with poor warning properties
because the worker cannot detect the presence of the product at safe levels
if the respirator fails.
The pH of a product is one factor to consider when estimating its corrosive effects.
Corrosives include acids, such as muriatic acid,
and caustics, such as sodium hydroxide.
The pH will be a number on the scale of 0 to 14,
where 7 indicates a non-corrosive substance such as water.
Acids have pH values less than seven and caustics have values greater than seven.
Section Four, Fire and Explosion Data, provides information and procedures
of particular interest to fire prevention and response personnel.
A yes answer to flammability
is followed by the conditions in which a product is flammable.
For example, a highly flammable substance, such as acetone,
may catch fire even in the presence of a weak source of ignition,
such as a static spark,
whereas a combustible substance, such as kerosene,
may require the presence of a flame.
The means of extinction item provides information on extinguishers
suitable for using on the burning product.
Standard firefighting agents include water, water fog, foam,
carbon dioxide and dry chemical.
This section also includes special firefighting procedures
for unusual product hazards.
For example, some reactive metals and concentrated corrosives
react dangerously with water.
Compressed gas cylinders may explode, unless cooled.
A flashpoint is the minimum temperature at which a liquid will catch fire
in the presence of a source of ignition.
The lower the flashpoint, the more easily the product will ignite.
Flammable liquids, such as acetone,have lower flashpoints
than combustible liquids, such as kerosene.
Section Five, Reactivity Data, provides information on product stability
and the likelihood of dangerous reaction with other chemicals.
Some peroxides, azides and chemicals used to produce plastics
are chemically unstable and must be stored and handled with special precautions.
Incompatible substances are those substances which react dangerously together.
For example, when strong mineral acids contact caustics,
large quantities of heat and mist are given off.
And oxidizers, which contribute oxygen during combustion,
are incompatible with flammables.
Section Six, Toxicological Properties,
provides information on how materials enter the body,
and what the short- and long-term health effects are.
Route of Entry gives information on the way substances can enter the body
to cause harm and whether the product will cause injury to the skin or eyes.
The three routes of entry are absorption through the skin,
inhalation into the lungs and ingestion or swallowing.
For example, a substance such as free silica,
found in dust from sandblasting or concrete grinding,
causes harm only when it's breathed into the lungs.
In contrast, many solvents can enter the body
through breathing in vapours and absorption through the skin.
Some solvents can injure the skin on contact.
This information is useful in selecting personal protective equipment
and developing first aid procedures.
Effects of acute exposure summarizes the adverse health effects
resulting from short-term exposure.
For example, an acute exposure to carbon monoxide can, depending on the dose,
quickly cause symptoms ranging from headache and dizziness to coma and death.
In contrast, an acute exposure to free silica
will not usually produce any immediate ill health effect
and may not result in long-term health problems.
However, chronic exposure to free silica in air may cause the lung disease silicosis.
Chronic exposure refers to repeated exposure over a relatively long period of time.
Sensitization refers to the ability of a product
to cause an allergic type of reaction in a person.
Isocyanates, used in some automobile paints, are an example of a group of sensitizers.
Carcinogenicity describes the cancer-causing properties of the product.
For example, asbestos is a carcinogen.
Teratogenicity and embryotoxicity are related to injuries in offspring
resulting from a pregnant female being exposed to the product.
These injuries include malformation and death.
Thalidomide is an example of a teratogen.
Reproductive toxicity refers to effects such as sterility.
The pesticide DBCP is an example of a reproductive toxin.
Section Seven, Preventive Measures,
is based in part on the information provided in previous sections.
It outlines measures to protect workers
during product transportation, storage, use and disposal,
as well as emergency procedures related to accidental release.
Employers must adopt this information to the specific workplace hazards.
Personal protective equipment provides a variety of information
in the selection of gloves to avoid skin absorption,
respiratory devices for inhalation hazards,
eye protection, footwear and clothing.
Suppliers must ensure this information is as specific as possible
to be of real use to the employer and worker.
Engineering controls may cover ventilation or equipment design
to control the product at the source.
Ventilation system information
will distinguish between local exhaust and general ventilation systems
and may provide advice on preferred fan types or duct materials.
Leak and spill procedures outline protective equipment for emergency workers,
control methods and specific safety measures,
such as using only vacuum cleaners equipped with high-efficiency filters
for use with asbestos cleanup.
Waste disposal information details waste container design,
WHMIS identifiers, safe handling procedures and agency contacts for disposal requirements.
Handling procedures and equipment outlines precautions required
during handling of the product.
The procedures must be consistent with precautionary measures
detailed on the product label.
For example, with strong corrosives, dilute by adding to water,
not by adding water to the product.
Storage requirements provide essential information
concerning storage temperature, separation of incompatible products,
shelf life limits and any special storage information.
For example, picric acid must be stored under water
because it becomes explosive when dry.
Special shipping information covers factors
such as product sensitivity to shock or temperature,
and should provide information on TDG class and division assignments.
Section Eight, First Aid Measures, details immediate treatment of acute ill health effects
for on site use by First Aid personnel.
Separate procedures for each route of entry,
such as inhalation, skin contact or absorption or swallowing,
will be necessary for most substances.
Information on the early warning symptoms of adverse health effects
will also be of assistance here.
The MSDS preparation date, reported in Section Nine,
is designed to ensure compliance with the requirements for MSDSs
to be current and updated every three years.
That covers the basic introduction to Material Safety Data Sheets.
The job at hand is to review the data sheet program at your workplace.
Have data sheets been received
for all controlled products purchased from suppliers,
and developed for controlled products produced in the workplace?
Are data sheets filled out properly?
Do they show the nine sections of information?
Do they provide information for each item?
Are they less than three years old?
Have workers been educated in the hazard information from the data sheet
and any other information that applies?
Are data sheets readily available to workers, and do they know where to find them?
The answer to all these questions must be yes.
WHMIS and Material Safety Data Sheets, for a safer and healthier workplace.