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The chemical label is your primary source of information regarding the product. Unfortunately there isn’t one universally used labeling convention. But we will go over some examples of labels you might see and the information you will encounter.
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When a manufacturer makes a product they have to put a warning label on the product and create an MSDS. The Laboratory Safety Standard tells them that at a minimum they have to put the identity of the product, appropriate hazard warnings, and their name and address. There will also be a warning if it has been determined that the material may cause cancer.
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Since the labels should be adequate as they are received by us, we rely on the labels to provide us with the appropriate hazard information. Just remember that it’s important to maintain the label and transfer the information if the chemical product is transferred to another container. On exception to this rule is, if the chemical is being used only by the same individual that transferred it to a new container during the course of their working shift, then it is not necessary to transfer all of the hazard information. However, the container should be labeled at least with the identity of the chemical. If there is some chemical left over at the end of the user’s work shift, then it either needs to be transferred back to the original container or labeled with the appropriate hazard warnings.
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Most manufacturers go beyond the basic information and have developed their own labels. NSCC has adopted a commercially available labeling system to augment the manufacturer’s label known as the Hazardous Material Identification System (HMIS). We will talk more about this in a moment.
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