Material Safety Data Sheets


Code of Federal Regulations 40CFR370.21 stipulates that The owner or operator of a facility subject to this subpart shall submit an MSDS for each hazardous chemical present at the facility. MSDSs or Material Safety Data Sheets must be supplied with each chemical supplied by a chemical supplier. As a result MSDSs may vary slightly from supplier to supplier, but they should basically contain the same information. The Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have worked to standardize the information contained in an MSDS and make them more readable. An MSDS contains the following basic information:

    The material's identity
    (including chemical and common names)

Hazardous ingrediants

    Cancer causing ingrediants

List of physical and chemical hazards and characteristics

    List of health hazards (including acute chronic effects)

OSHA, IARC, or NTP carcinogenicity

    Exposure limits and routes of entry and target orgrans

Precautions and safety equipment

    Emergency and first aid procedures

Fire fighting information

    Procedures for cleanup of spills

Precautions for safe handling

    Organization creating the MSDS, date of issue, and emergency phone number


Paper copies of these MSDSs must be present in an accessible location at the site where the chemical is used. While an employer should make an employee aware of the hazards associated with the materials with which they are working or to which they might be exposed, it is the responsibility of the employee (i.e., you) to familiarize themselves with these hazards and read the appropriate MSDSs when working with hazardous materials.

The MSDS Discussion Forum, MSDSOnline.Com, and Cornell University are examples of WWW sites that provide sources of MSDSs available on the internet.