Guidelines for care & Use of Dry Solvent Stills [Example]

ated by stockroom personnel and based on information stated in the MSDS sheets. The rating system is
explained below. Chemical manufacturers are legally responsible for reliability of information supplied on
MSDS sheets. When HMIS ratings are not supplied by them, this department will supply them by criteria
listed on the next few pages. SINCE AN ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT LACKS INDUSTRIAL HAZARD
ASSESSMENT CAPABILITY, WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY CANNOT IN ANY WAY BE HELD
LIABLE FOR THE ACCURACY OF DEPARTMENTALLY SUPPLIED HMIS RATINGS.
Summaries of the HMIS / NFPA systems and MSDS sheets in wall chart form are kept in the
undergraduate laboratory hallway bulletin boards, located near the stockroom, room # 110. You are
required to first consult this manual, and read the wall charts for basic required introductory information. If
you need further elaboration, then view the departmental video entitled “Hazardous Materials
Communication Program, Bowman Gray School of Medicine”, kept by the laboratory manager. Also, the
National Paint and Coatings Association Implementation Manual is kept with the laboratory manager for
your reference if requested.
The ratings are also listed in the inventory of all MSDS sheets for Salem Hall and for each
chemical in each research laboratory.
Please consult the MSDS word dictionary in the training section of this manual for explanations of
rating terminology. Note, in particular, that LD subscript 50 refers to lethal dose of 50% of the population
of tested animals. Nearly all of the toxicity ratings are based on animal data.
3. HMIS and MSDS Clarifications
Clarification of Laboratory Manager‟s reasons for continuing to maintain paper copies of MSDS, updating
inventory of all chemicals within the department, and use of HMIS ratings system. (Written by Julianne
Braun, graduate student):
Legal requirements - types of hazards, MSDS
29CFR 1910.1450(h)(1)(ii) “Employers shall maintain any material safety data sheets that are
received with incoming shipments of hazardous chemicals, and ensure that they are readily accessible
to laboratory employees.”
29CFR 1910.1450(e)(3)(viii) [The chemical hygiene plan shall include…] “Provisions for
additional employee protection for work with particularly hazardous substances. These include
“select carcinogens”, reproductive toxins and substances which have a high degree of acute toxicity.
…”
Why use inventory & ratings to comply ?
The law requires that special treatment be given to certain classes of substances. The only way to be
able to comply with the law is to identify which substances we have which require special treatment. The
best means of doing this appears to be through an inventory of all chemicals in the department. The
inventory can then be cross-referenced with lists of those substances requiring special handling.
The OSHA Laboratory Standard (29 CFR 1910.1450) specifically lists those substances which must be
treated as “select carcinogens”, but for reproductive toxins and for “substances which have a high degree of
acute toxicity” criteria are given, but not specific lists. The law places the responsibility for determining
which chemicals meet the criteria (and thus require special handling, storage, waste removal and
decontamination procedures) on the employer. Because all of the MSDS which have been filed in the
MSDS library in the stockroom have been rated according to the HMIS system, it was determined that the
HMIS system of ratings would be the most efficient means for determining which chemicals meet the
OSHA criteria for “reproductive toxins” and “substances which have a high degree of acute toxicity”
without having to use some new rating system and rate all our existing MSDS with the new system.
MSDS - paper vs. CD-ROM or network access
Because OSHA requires that MSDS from each source of supply be maintained, it is not feasible to attain
legal compliance by use of a pre-packaged CD-ROM of MSDS. The time and resources required to scan all
of our existing MSDS into a custom CD-ROM would probably far exceed their usefulness. Legal
compliance matters aside, I think it would be great to get some health and safety information available to
faculty and students via a networked CD-ROM. When considering how much of our resources should be
spent on this, please keep in mind that MSDS for all chemicals sold by Fisher are available via WWW at
URL http://www.fisher1.com., and from Sigma-Aldrich at:
http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/saws.nsf/msdshelp?OpenForm
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