EdvoTech Tips: How to Read Product Labels and Safety Data Sheets

Product labels and safety data sheets are an important way that companies like Edvotek can communicate with their customers about the best way to handle and store chemicals in your classroom. In this video and the accompanying blog posts, we discuss each section of the SDS and what it means.

The second blog post on reading SDSs: TBA

In March 2012, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (or OSHA) adopted the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals, or GHS. This agreement standardized the way that companies communicate information about chemical hazards from their products. The GHS provides guidelines on how companies classify a chemical’s physical, environmental, and health hazards. It also defines a system to guide manufacturers on effective communication regarding these chemical hazards, and ways to advise users on safe handling. This hazard reporting system applies companies producing pharmaceuticals, chemicals, pesticides, and cleaning supplies. The target audiences for GHS include production workers, lab workers, emergency responders, and consumers.

Safety Data Sheets (or SDSs) are comprehensive written documents that communicate the hazards associated with each product in depth. They provide the detailed information we need to safely handle chemicals in the laboratory. Each resource includes standardized signal words, pictograms, and precautionary statements. Each section of the SDS explain the hazards of the chemical products in a clear and concise manner. These simplified documents help reduce confusion, and to ensure that products are used in a safe way.

[Theseones]

I wonder, if I use a chemical like a car degreaser, will it be less hazardous if I dilute it with water heavly? Or should I not mess with it since I am not a chemist?