M10.2 Blog about MSDS and ToxNet

MSDS and ToxNet 

Obtain a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) from your workplace or from the workplace of a family member or friend. Material Safety Data Sheets are chemical information sheets created by chemical manufacturers that all employers are required to obtain and keep for any potentially hazardous chemicals in the workplace.

In my office we deal very little with hazardous chemicals. However, we do sometimes have to use WD-40 and I obtained an MSDS on the use of the chemicals in this product. In particular the chemical Decane. 

Review the MSDS and answer the following questions:

·   What are the health risks associated with this chemical?

The health risks associated with Decane include:

·     Nasal and respiratory irritation and central nervous system effects such as headache, dizziness and nausea.

·     Prolonged and/or repeated contact with the skin may produce mild irritation with possible dermatitis.

·     Contact may be irritating to eyes and may cause redness and tearing.

·     Swallowing may cause gastrointestinal irritation, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

·     If swallowed, it can enter the lungs and may cause chemical pneumonitis, severe lung damage and death. 

·    Is the chemical a carcinogen?

Decane is not considered a carcinogen.

·    What personal protective equipment or special precautions should be taken when working with this chemical?

Personal protective equipment or special precautions include wearing safety goggles and chemical resistant gloves. If occupational exposure limits (1200 mg/m3 TWA) are exceeded a person should wear a NIOSH approved respirator.

·    If this is a chemical found in your workplace, what training/education were you given about any risks associated with this chemical? 

This chemical was found in my work place, however I was not provided any training/education about the risks associated with Decane. 

Look up the chemical using the ToxNet databases you mastered while viewing the enviRN-EVIDENCE program. Were there any discrepancies regarding the potential health effects noted in the MSDS?

One inconsistency that I found was that the ToxNet databases noted that skin irritation did not occur in volunteers following direct exposure to Decane. However, the MSDS listed that prolonged and/or repeated contact of Decane with the skin may produce mild irritation with possible dermatitis. It is interesting that the MSDS would list the potential for skin irritation, but the ToxNet databases did not. 

In your BLOG, write about your findings:

About the potential dangers associated with the chemical/product you looked up. 

Potential dangers include headache, dizziness and passing out, and asphyxiation. Additionally, skin exposure to decane increased the number of tumors caused by known cancer agents (radiation, benzo(a)pyrene), but did not cause tumors by itself. No additional information was available on the potential for Decane to cause cancer. 

Was the MSDS an adequate tool for a worker to use to gain an understanding about the potential health risks and how to protect him/herself? (Consider that the general public reads at a reading level at or below 6th grade, and that's if English is their first language.)

The MSDS was a minimally adequate tool for a worker to use to gain an understanding about the potential health risks and how to protect him/herself. An individual would need to have a higher reading level than the 6^th grade to fully comprehend the information that was presented. As a result, many people will likely not read the MSDS in its entirety, or if they do they will not know what many of the scientific/technical words mean. Additionally, if English is not a person’s first language then the MSDS could be very hard for them to understand. Visual images would be very helpful to have with the MSDS for those whose first language is not English. For example, it would be great to show images of the kind of personal protection equipment that is recommended for people to wear such as safety goggles or chemical resistant gloves.

References:

·       Retrieved from: https://www.wd40company.com/partners-suppliers/msds-sds/ 

·       Retrieved from: https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/f?./temp/~POSmoX:1