Adam Have PM'd you Chris

Hello Aleeman The msds is OK but it should only be part of the COSHH assessment. You need to consider the process conditions as well as the substances involved. For instance a process may use water, but that can exist as steam at high temperatures, ice at low temperatures, water or water vapour. So for a process involving water exposure could result in scalds, contact dermatitus, conditions such as trench foot, etc. Getting back to the msds, section 3 will usually list the risk phrase of individual ingredients but will not detail any synergistic effects presented by mixtures of ingredients. Section 15 is where it can get confusing because some companies will list all ingredient risk phrases again in there and some others will only list the risk phrases of the main ingredients on the assumption that minor ingredients are in small quantities.

The GHS is soon set to replace risk phrases with hazard statements and s phrases with precautionary statements. have a look at a little Prezi I gave on the new GHS http://prezi.com/51m4baist4wg/ghs2/ if you have the time

Just one or two points that I think are often overlooked. Hazardous substances COSHH section 2(1) states that any chemical can become a substance hazardous to health depending on how it is present and used at the workplace. So it isn't just substances with risk phrases (hazard statements) that need to be considered in a COSHH risk assessment. Since the ones not having risk phrases will not normally be shown on the safety data sheet, these need to be treated with caution. This is correct. The most common cause of occupational irritant contact dermatitis is from wet work, i.e. exposure to water. Water has long been recognised as a skin irritant by dermatologists. Safety data sheets In a recent review of safety data sheets produced to comply with REACH the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) found that 52% of those studied were inadequate or incorrect. If this is the case how should we use them for the risk assessment? Hazards when chemicals are used. We usually purchase chemicals to use them. In the process we will often change their properties, and therefore the hazard. If we mix, dilute, react, contaminate, etc,. the hazard that we need to assess may be very different to that shown on the safety data sheet, which only relates to the chemical as supplied. A risk assessment based purely on the hazards shown on the safety data sheet may be very wide of the mark. The same chemical, used in two different ways in the same workplace, may represent two very different hazards. EU-OSHA has a document relating to common errors in risk assessment (see my other post on this) that also covers these points. Chris