Nickel & Its Uses
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Appendix D - 10 Classification, Labeling And Materials Safety Data Sheets - U.S.A. -- May '97

Classification (hazard determination), labeling and materials safety data sheets (MSDS) are regulated in the USA under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) 29 CFR 1910.1200. This occupational safety and health standard requires (chemical) manufacturers or importers to assess the hazards of chemicals which they produce or import, and all employers to provide information to their employees about the hazardous chemicals to which they are exposed, by means of a hazard communication program, labels and other forms of warning, material safety data sheets, and information and training. In addition, it requires distributors to transmit the required information to employers. Employers who do not produce or import chemicals need only focus on those parts of the rule that deal with establishing a workplace program and communicating information to their workers. Thus, the HCS requires labels and MSDS to be transmitted from manufacturers and importers to distributors to employers to employees.

In work operations where employees only handle chemicals in sealed containers which are not opened under normal conditions of use (such as are found in marine cargo handling, warehousing, or retail sales), this section applies to these operations only as follows:

i. Employers shall ensure that labels on incoming containers of hazardous chemicals are not removed or defaced;

ii. Employers shall maintain copies of any material safety data sheets that are received with incoming shipments of the sealed containers of hazardous chemicals, shall obtain a material safety data sheet as soon as possible for sealed containers of hazardous chemicals received without a material safety data sheet if an employee requests the material safety data sheet, and shall ensure that the material safety data sheets are readily accessible during each work shift to employees when they are in their work area(s); and,

iii. Employers shall ensure that employees are provided with information and training to the extent necessary to protect them in the event of a spill or leak of a hazardous chemical from a sealed container.

HAZARD DETERMINATION
Chemical manufacturers and importers shall evaluate chemicals produced in their workplaces or imported by them to determine if they are hazardous. Employers are not required to evaluate chemicals, unless they choose not to rely on the evaluation performed by the chemical manufacturer or importer, for the chemical to satisfy this requirement.

Chemical manufacturers, importers or employers evaluating chemicals shall identify and consider the available scientific evidence concerning such hazards. For health hazards, evidence which is statistically significant and which is based on at least one positive study conducted in accordance with established scientific principles is considered to be sufficient to establish a hazardous effect if the results of the study meet the definitions of health hazards in this section.

The chemical manufacturer, importer or employer evaluating chemicals shall treat the following sources as establishing that the chemicals listed in them are hazardous:

(I) CFR part 1910, sub-part Z, Toxic and Hazardous Substances, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); or,

(II) Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents in the Work Environment, American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) (latest edition). The chemical manufacturer, importer, or employer is still responsible for evaluating the hazards associated with the chemicals in these source lists in accordance with the requirements of this standard.

Chemical Manufacturers, importers and employers evaluating chemicals shall treat the following sources as establishing that a chemical is a carcinogen or potential carcinogen for hazard communication purposes:

i. National Toxicology Program (NTP) Annual Report on Carcinogens (latest edition)

ii. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs (latest edition)

iii. CFR part 1910, sub-part Z. Toxic and hazardous Substances, Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The chemical manufacturer, importer or employer shall determine the hazards of mixtures of chemicals as follows:

i. If a mixture has been tested as a whole to determine its hazards, the results of such testing shall be used to determine whether the mixture is hazardous;

ii. If a mixture has not been tested as a health hazard, the mixture shall be assumed to present the same health hazards as do the components which comprise one percent (by weight or volume) or greater of the mixture, except that the mixture shall be assumed to present a carcinogenic hazard if it contains a component in concentrations of 0.1 percent or greater which is considered to be a carcinogen under paragraph (d) (4) of this section;

iii. If a mixture has not been tested as a whole to determine whether the mixture is a physical hazard, the chemical manufacturer, importer, or employer may use whatever scientifically valid data is available to evaluate the physical hazard potential of the mixture; and,

iv. If the chemical manufacturer, importer, or employer has evidence to indicate that a component present in the mixture in concentrations of less than one percent (or in the case of carcinogens, less than 0.1 percent) could be released in concentrations which would exceed established OSHA permissible exposure limit or ACGIH Threshold Limit Value, or could present a health risk to employees in those concentrations, the mixture shall be assumed to present the same hazard.

Chemical manufacturers, importers, or employers evaluating chemicals shall describe in writing the procedures they use to determine the hazards of the chemical they evaluate.

LABELS AND OTHER FORMS OF WARNING
The chemical manufacturer, importer, or distributor shall ensure that each container or hazardous chemicals leaving the workplace is labeled, tagged or marked with the following information:

i. Identity of the hazardous chemical(s);

ii. Appropriate hazard warnings; and

iii. Name and address of the chemical manufacturer, importer, or other responsible party.

Chemical manufacturers, importers, or distributors shall ensure that each container of hazardous chemicals leaving the workplace is labeled, tagged, or marked in a manner which does not conflict with the requirements of the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act and regulations issued under that Act by the Department of Transportation.

If the hazardous chemical is regulated by OSHA in a substance-specific health stand, the chemical manufacturer, importer, distributor or employer shall ensure that the labels or other forms of warning used are in accordance with the requirements of that standard.

Except as provided in the following two paragraphs, the employer shall ensure that each container of hazardous chemicals in the work place is labeled, tagged or marked with the following information:

i. Identity of the hazardous chemical(s) contained therein; and,

ii. Appropriate hazard warnings, or alternatively, words, pictures, symbols, or combination thereof, which provide at least general information regarding the hazards of the chemicals, and which, in conjunction with the other information immediately available to the employees under the hazard communication program, will provide employees with the specific information regarding the physical and health hazards of the hazardous chemical.

The employer may use signs, placards, process sheets, batch tickets, operating procedures, or other such written materials in lieu of affixing labels to individual stationary process containers, as long as the alternative method identifies the containers to which it is applicable and conveys the information required. The written materials shall be readily accessible to the employees in their work area throughout each work shift.

The employer is not required to label portable containers into which hazardous chemicals are transferred from labeled containers, and which are intended only for the immediate use of the employee who performs the transfer.

The employer shall not remove or deface existing labels on incoming containers of hazardous chemicals, unless the container is immediately marked with the required information.

The employer shall ensure that labels or other forms of warning are legible, in English, and prominently displayed on the container, or readily available in the work area throughout each work shift. Employers having employees who speak other languages may add the information in their language to the material presented, as long as the information is presented in English as well.

The chemical manufacturer, importer, distributor or employer need not affix new labels to comply with this section if existing labels already convey the required information.

Chemical manufacturers, importer, distributors, or employers who become newly aware of any significant information regarding the hazards of a chemical shall revise the labels for the chemical within three months of becoming aware of the new information. Labels on containers of hazardous chemicals shipped after that time shall contain the new information. If the chemical is not currently produced or imported, the chemical manufacturer, importers, distributor, or employer shall add the information to the label before the chemical is shipped or introduced into the workplace again.

MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEETS
Chemical manufacturers and importers shall obtain or develop a material safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical they produce or import. Employers shall have a material safety data sheet in the workplace for each hazardous chemical which they use. Each material safety data sheet shall be in English (although the employer may maintain copies in other languages as well).

A summary of the data required for the MSDS is given in Appendix D - 11 following the ANSI 16 section format.

SUPPLIER NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
Title III of the Superintendent Amendments and Re-authorization (also known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act) requires, under section 313, that certain manufactures report annual releases to the environment of listed toxic chemicals and chemical categories. Because these manufacturers must know the toxic chemical composition of the products they use to be able to calculate releases accurately, EPA requires some suppliers of mixtures or trade name products containing one or more of the listed section 313 chemicals to notify their customers.

The notification must include the following information:

(1) A statement that the mixture or trade name product contains a toxic chemical or chemicals subject to the reporting requirements of section 313 of Title III and of 40 CFR 372;

(2) The name of each toxic chemical and the associated Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registry number of each chemical if applicable. (Chemical categories do not have CAS numbers, since the categories can represent several individual chemicals.)

(3) The percentage by weight of each toxic chemical in the mixture or trade name product (e.g., 25 percent by weight).

The required notification must be in writing. If you are required to prepare and distribute a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for the mixture under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard, your section 313 notification must accompany the MSDS. Your notification may be in the form of a letter to your customers attached to an MSDS. or the MSDS may be modified to include the required information.

You must make it clear to your customers that any copies or redistribution of the MSDS must include the section 313 notice. In other words, your customers should understand their requirement to include the 313 notification if they give your MSDS to their customers.

In general, you must notify each customer receiving a mixture or trade name product containing a listed chemical with the first shipment of each calendar year (beginning January 1, 1989.) You may send the notice with subsequent shipments as well, but you are required to send it with the first shipment each year.

If your mixture or trade name product contains one of the listed chemicals, you are not required to notify your customers if:

(1) Your mixture or trade name product contains the toxic chemical in percentages by weight of less than the following levels (These are known as de minimis levels):

Nickel