> >Easy for lab chemicals, not easy for products that are mixtures like paint, paint thinners and strippers, special effects chemicals,

Not necessarily “easy” for lab chemicals, either, if you are chemist and not a hazmat chemist. SDS’s are not simple to wade through and there may be 10 or 15 SDS’s to select from for a specific process. Someone with EHS experience can often do hazard determinations relatively quickly, but is a skill that requires practice and specialized knowledge to do routinely. And there often too many academic chemists doing their thing for EHS support person for hazard determinations to be done routinely.

A safety-conscious grad student told me recently that they have 5 minutes to pursue safety information for their process before it becomes too much of a distraction from their “real job”. That may be a perception of what the real job is, but it is their perception...

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

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