The Safety Doctor Article

Dr. Isabel Perry
www.TheSafetyDoctor.com
©Copyright 2002

"Material Safety Data Sheet"
What does it include?

Concerned about the health hazards of the materials you are working with in the workplace? A material safety data sheet can warn you about the harmful effects of a chemical, so you can take precautions to work with it safely.

A material safety data sheet is an information bulletin prepared by the manufacturer of a chemical that descries the physical and chemical properties, physical and health hazards, routes of exposure, precautions for safe handling and sue, emergency and first-aid procedures and control measures.

Chemical manufactures must develop a material safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical they produce. This document must be included in the initial shipment of a hazardous material to a downstream distributor or user.

The material safety data sheet must be in English and include the following information: common names of the chemical

• The physical and chemical characteristics of the chemical
   
• Known acute and chronic health effects and related health information
   
• Exposure limits
   
• Whether the chemical is considered to be a carcinogen
   
• Precautionary measures regarding personal protective equipment
   
• Emergency and first-aid procedures
   
• Contact information (name, address and telephone number of the organization responsible for preparing the sheet

Copies of the material safety data sheet in a given worksite are to be readily accessible to employees in that area on each work shift.

Copyright 2002 Dr. Isabel Perry. All rights reserved.

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Dr. Isabel Perry prescribes solutions to reduce risk, costs and increase production for all types of organizations. Dr. Perry is an Orlando, Florida based Safety Professional with over 20 years of broad-based safety experience including: safety speaker, safety consultant, expert witness, and former safety executive at a Fortune 50 company. Her clients include many multinational firms. Dr. Perry’s can be contacted at [email protected]