By Janet L. Keyes, CIH
Ever look at a safety data sheet? Ever wonder why you’re required to have them available to employees? Have any employees ever asked to see one?
Safety data sheets exist for one important reason: to convey more information about a product than you can glean from the label or from Right to Know/hazard communication training. And that additional information is crucial. Training can cover general hazards, but it has a hard time delving into detail on any one product. Labels are too space-limited; their purpose is to give you a quick idea of the major hazards and precautions (if you can read the small type!). If you really want to know what makes a product hazardous, what its hazards are, and how you can deal with those hazards, the safety data sheet is the best place to start.
How can you use them? Let’s look at one, for Finishmaster’s Smart Lacquer Thinner. Many of you have used this product. It’s a typical lacquer thinner. And this SDS is pretty well-written, so it’s a good example. Not all safety data sheets are this good. The manufacturers are responsible for providing them – and some manufacturers don’t have the resources or knowledge to provide an accurate SDS. And some of the companies that write SDSs make them way too technical for their primary audience – those who use the product – to understand.
SECTION 1. All SDSs will start out with contact information – who’s responsible for the product and who you can call if you have health or safety problems with it. Finishmaster uses a service called Infotrac to answer your emergency questions. Other manufacturers may use Chemtrec, part of the American Chemistry Council. And others may handle emergencies in-house.
SECTION 2. The next section looks a lot like the product label, complete with the pictograms that provide a general warning about product hazards. But the SDS will also have the hazard classification. If I’m writing an SDS, one of my first steps will be to classify its hazards according to specific criteria. Does it catch on fire easily? If so, it’s classified as a flammable liquid. Can it cause permanent eye damage? The hazard classification system is a global system, based on objective criteria. The aim: ensure products with the same hazards get the same warnings.
The lacquer thinner is classified as “category 2: acute oral toxicity.” That means the lethal dose for lab animals is between 5 milligrams and 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight – if converted to human scale, about a tenth of an ounce could kill an adult. A category 1 chemical would be at least ten times more toxic, and a chemical classified as acutely toxic category 4 at least ten times less toxic. Because of that category 2 acute toxicity classification, lacquer thinner gets the skull and crossbones pictogram, along with the warning, Danger. Toxic if swallowed.
SECTION 3. What ingredients are responsible for that toxic warning? Section 3 lists the potential culprits. I can’t tell which one is acutely toxic, but I could dig into more. And the toxicology section towards the end of the SDS might tell me.
SECTION 4. The First Aid Measures section gives pretty straightforward recommendations for exposure. It tells me if throwing up after swallowing the chemical is recommended (it isn’t. Who would swallow lacquer thinner, you ask? I know a body tech who did, because it had been put into a soda pop container). I’d still want to call the poison center for advice.
Of more value: this section tells me what the most important immediate symptoms will be. As too many body shop workers know, it will severely irritate eyes. But do users know that repeated overexposure can cause permanent brain and nervous system damage?
SECTION 5. As we’ll see when we get to the physical characteristics section and as you already know, thinner catches fire easily. But have you thought about what to do if it ignites? Pouring water on the fire will spread it, because it’s lighter than water. If you read the firefighting section when you get the product, instead of waiting until it ignites, you can make sure you have the right type of extinguisher. Combine that with the section on handling and storage, and you’ll know what measures to take to avoid a fire.
SECTION 6. The section on accidental release measures is about as straightforward as the first aid section – confine it, clean it up, dispose of properly. But would you think to ventilate the area? To make sure people stop grinding or doing other spark-creating activities?
SECTION 7, which advises on how to handle this safely, should be required reading before you even order the product. Were you aware that you can get flash fires with thinner? Have you thought about how to store it safely?
SECTION 8. How will you make sure employees aren’t overexposed? The next section covers that. It’s better to use engineering controls, such as good ventilation, and good work practices than to depend on the use of personal protective equipment. But sometimes all are needed. For instance, if you can’t choose a safer solvent for wiping down parts, skin contact will occur. What type of gloves will work? Finishmaster recommends neoprene gloves. Nitrile gloves, the type we see most often, will degrade quickly when in contact with toluene, which makes up 19% of this thinner.
SECTION 9, physical and chemical properties, is my favorite section, because this tells me how the chemical will behave. If it has a vapor pressure above, say, 1 mmHg, it will evaporate readily enough that breathing it could lead to overexposure. That’s not a hard and fast number. Mercury has a vapor pressure of only 0.0012 mmHg – but it is a potent neurotoxicant. In a poorly ventilated area or if you’re frequently exposed, it could poison you.
The flash point tells me how readily the chemical will ignite – the lower the flash point, the greater the fire hazard. The flash point for gasoline is about -45°F, much lower than the 24°F for thinner. But both of those are low enough to be major fire hazards.
If a pH is listed, I can tell how corrosive the chemical is. The pH scale goes from 0, for very strong acids, to 14, for very strong alkalis. Neutral is 7. The pH of wheel acid and battery acid is below 1. The pH of floor cleaners is usually around 13. Mix those, and they’ll react violently. Get either in your eye, and you could have permanent eye damage.
SECTION 10. I don’t need to remember my chemistry to know what I can’t mix with this product – I can just read Section 10, Stability and Reactivity. Incompatibility isn’t something I need to worry about with thinner. This section tells me it is stable, with no particular conditions or other materials to avoid.
SECTION 11. If I want to find out more about its health hazards, Section 11, Toxicological Information, is the place to go. What are its chronic effects, those from repeated overexposure? Can it cause cancer? That’s most often determined by the evaluations of one of two agencies, IARC under the World Health Organization and NTP, under the Department of Health and Human Services in the US. They will classify chemicals as known carcinogens, suspect carcinogens, not classifiable, or probably not carcinogenic.
SECTION 13. If we’re trying to figure out how to dispose of waste thinner, we might consult section 13, Disposal Considerations. Sometimes, this will clearly state that the material is not hazardous waste. But even if it states that, keep in mind that you need to check local regulations, and that how you use the product can make it hazardous waste.
SECTIONS 12, 14, 15. There is a section on ecological information – would it kill fish or beneficial insects? How it needs to be classified for shipping is Section 14. Regulatory information, such as whether it is a hazardous air pollutant, is found in Section 15. And then any other information the company thinks is needed for the user will be in the last section.
Safety data sheets aren’t exactly light reading. But they provide a wealth of information about the product. Too much for you? Stick with the sections on handling and storage, on exposure controls, and first aid measures. Read those, and you’ll have a good grasp of how to handle the material safely.
This article originally appeared in AASP-MN News (September 2023). It is intended to provide general information (no advice) about current safety topics. For questions on Safety Data Sheets please contact CHESS at 651-481-9787 or chess@chess-safety.com.