Material Safety Data Sheets
Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are part of the hazards communications standard (Federal Standard 29 CFR 1910.1200). The MSDS is your guide to working with chemicals safely.
They must be provided by the manufacturer and we are required to have a MSDS for each chemical at Grice. Students, faculty and staff are required to read and understand the MSDS prior to use of any hazardous chemical.
MSDS Locations
-Conference Room (106) in black binders on the shelf
-Computer Lab (108) on computer desktops
MSDS Sections
- Product and company identification
- Composition
- Hazards identifications
- First aid measures
- Fire fighting measures
- Accidental release measures
- Handling and storage
- Exposure controls and personal protection
- Physical and chemical properties
- Stability and reactivity
- Toxicological information
- Ecological information
- Disposal considerations
- Transport information
- Regulations
- Other information
MSDS Acronyms
Some terms⁄abbreviations that are important for you to understand are listed below.
CAS= Chemical Abstract Service
PEL = permissible exposure limit (8-hour Time Weighed Average: TWA)
STEL = short term exposure limit (15-minutes: 4 times/DAY with 1 HOUR break)
C = ceiling limit
TLV = threshold limit value (ACGIH)
REL= recommended exposure level (NIOSH)
IDLH = Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health
LEL & UEL= lower and upper explosive limit
Other resources available:
OSHA provides a glossary for these terms. There are good guides to reading an MSDS available online.
There are numerous resources to look up a chemical MSDS on online. You can go directly to a vender like: VWR, Sigma-Aldrich or Fisher Scientific.
You can use a MSDS launch site like MSDS-Search or MSDS on the Internet. There are also commercial and university sites available.