What Is On a Material Safety Data Sheet?

There is no required format for an MSDS given by OSHA, but just a list of required informational points to be included. While OSHA's website does offer a form that meets the requirements, OSHA clearly prefers and recommends the ANSI 16-section format for its organization and clarity.

This numbering is taken from the ANSI 2004 standard which re-orders Sections 2 and 3, which is not what you see on most MSDSs currently in circulation.

Section 1. Chemical Product and Company Information. The company needs to be clearly identified with a physical address and a phone number. The product needs to be clearly identified as well, with a readily apparent correspondence between the product label and the MSDS. A pure substance or recognized mixture may have its own Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry number, which is given in this section and perhaps a more generic name and product use or description, as well.

Emergency phone number - This is required by DOT to provide additional information about hazardous materials in the event of a transportation emergency. This is generally provided through a service like CHEMTREC, INFOTRAC or CHEMTEL. Some companies are large enough to provide this themselves, but usually even large companies farm this out to these specialty services.

This section often includes a date of creation or revision. This is important for Canada, because it requires that the MSDSs be revised every three years to maintain up-to-date information. If this date indicates the document is more than three years old, you may have trouble in Canada.

Section 2: Hazard Identification. Here near the beginning of the document is collected a brief set of descriptions of the hazards the material presents, along with likely symptoms of each potential route of exposure.

Section 3. Composition and Information on Ingredients. This is a list of the components, or more commonly of the hazardous components, along with their unambiguous identifiers such as CAS Registry number, EINECS or EU number and the concentration if present at 1% or greater. If any component is a carcinogen, then it must be listed if present at 0.1% or greater.

Section 4. First-aid Measures. These are appropriate measures that a motivated lay bystander could administer for the different kinds of exposure. More specialized notes, antidotes or treatments are sometimes provided to medical professionals, as well.

Section 5. Fire-Fighting Measures. This provides the acceptable fire-fighting media, explosion hazards, flash point, and NFPA code for the material.

Section 6. Accidental Release Measures. These are steps to take to safely clean up a spill. This section is intended for trained spill mitigation crews with proper equipment and personal protective equipment. The material might be diluted or neutralized by these responders if the proper information is available.

Section 7. Handling and Storage. Guidance in this section pertains to optimal storage conditions and considerations when handling or transferring the material. This guidance is often generic and not as specific as it could be.

Section 8. Exposure Controls/Personal Protection. The permissible exposure limits for the material or its components are given in this section. The limits may come from OSHA, NIOSH or ACGIH and may be exposures permitted over an 8-hour workday or may be a much higher danger limit. Various means of limiting exposures are also listed here, including gloves, aprons, lab coats, goggles, face shields or respirators. These PPE measures should be considered the last line of defense after administrative controls, work flow practices and building engineering are used to limit exposure.

Section 9. Physical and Chemical Properties. Here are listed many physical characteristics such as appearance and physical form, density, boiling point and melting point. Also, there are a number of properties with safety implications such as pH, flash point and the explosive concentration limits.

Section 10. Stability and Reactivity. Ideally, this section should outline ways in which the product might change with time or react with other incompatible materials. The focus should be on violent, self-heating or exothermic reactions that can be reasonably foreseen due to storage near incompatible materials. Any resulting hazardous decomposition products are also listed here.

Section 11. Toxicological Information. This section is intended to provide details of known human and animal toxicological studies or other data available. The severity of any eye or skin irritation potential is usually given. We often see whether or not the materials are carcinogenic, mutagenic or have other specific characteristics.

Section 12. Ecological Information. Here we find data about biodegradability, toxicity to wildlife and how the substances might dissipate, react or change under various environmental scenarios.

Section 13. Disposal Considerations. This section has information on regulatory requirements for disposal when the product is no longer wanted, but more likely rather little information that is specific to the product.

Section 14. Transport Information. This section provides various degrees of detail regarding shipping regulations by ground, air or vessel. It usually contains the proper shipping name, the UN number or other ID, the hazard class and the packing group. Any Reportable Quantity (RQ) information is often given here as well. Often a disclaimer states that shipping regulations are complex and that these details cannot cover every shipping situation.

Section 15. Regulatory Information. The product or its components are often the subject of other regulations by various federal or state agencies. The agency, law, regulation or country is listed and how the product or components are covered or listed by the body.

Section 16. Other Information. This section often contains the label text with appropriate warnings and precautions for the product. We also see abbreviations and acronyms used throughout such a technical document. Explanations of the NFPA or HMIS hazard rating systems are common in this section. Some indication of the revision history is often provided here. Any references to other documents are also generally collected into this section.