Thank you, Monona. On a totally non-technical note, it bothers me
that many propagate the notion that "fun chemistry" is not, or
cannot be "safe chemistry".
Sammye
You may think because I'm an industrial hygienist that I look at it in terms of worker safety, but that's not at all what I'm doing. I also vote on literally hundreds of ASTM consumer safety and labeling standards and I deal with all levels of school safety. The CPSC regulations define a "child" as grade 6 and under which is age 12/13. So my first issue is with the age RANGE for which this educational "toy" is the suggested.Next, the Federal Hazardous Substances Act as amended in 1989 (by a law I helped get passed) limits chemicals in children's materials to those that do not have to carry serious hazard warnings. So I would suggest people not invest in this company, because the first lawsuit filed against them for an accident or even deliberate misuse of those chemicals by someone under grade six is likely to be dicey for the Defendants.The next issue, as pointed up by others on this forum, is the "failure to warn" issue seen in the poor quality MSDSs. While MSDSs and SDSs carry some liability for worker exposure injuries, the worker cannot sue for workplace injuries so there is little case law to look to. But providing confusing or misleading information to consumers, who can be assumed not to be trained or educated in chemical safety, is a strict liability issue with a long history of precedent. If a jury composed of ordinary consumers can easily see how the parents were confused by the MSDSs/SDS, product literature, or labels, they will sympathize with the Plaintiffs.Then I'd suggest lawyers top off that case by showing that other labeling laws, shipping regulations, and a number of other smaller issues I noticed are also violations. Now we have the Defendants for lunch.If I were the owner of this company, I would get over the idea that my website was a version of the Sharks TV program on which he gets investors to make his business a big deal. He needs to: 1) restrict the customer age range; 2) sit with lawyers to develop literature that fully warns parents about the potentials for harm; 3) stop writing his own MSDSs as he proudly acclaims and for which he is unqualified; 4) direct link consumers instead to other free and respected sources such as the NJ DOH Right to Know Fact Sheets which ARE written for chemically unsophisticated people; and 5) obtain permission to use MSDS information from sources such as Aldrich or one of the major chemical suppliers and regularly updated.The business would be smaller, but he wouldn't be putting his own livelihood and his investors money is in such obvious jeopardy.Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial HygienistPresident: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE181 Thompson St., #23New York, NY 10012 212-777-0062
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Clark <erclark**At_Symbol_Here**PH.LACOUNTY.GOV>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Sent: Fri, Nov 15, 2013 11:48 pm
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Heirloom Chemistry Set Kickstarter Project
We're evaluating this chemistry set is as if it were a worker safety thing. By the time we insert all the proper documentation and remove all the risky things it won't be fun anymore. It would be more like work. This chemistry set isn't some Walmart item from the toy department, it's a serious learning activity that's also fun. If anyone is interested enough to want to spend this kind of money and share this with their significant young people, then they'll also provide some kind of proper supervision and be responsible, and not try to figure out a way to blame John Farrell Kuhns if something goes wrong. Btw, I thought that list of chemicals was pretty impressive. Or, maybe we should download the smart phone app and just simulate the chemistry. Eric Eric Clark, MS, CHMM, CCHO Safety Officer, Public Health Scientist III Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory (562) 658-1486 (562) 401-5999 Fax -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Peifer, Patricia Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 1:10 PM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Heirloom Chemistry Set Kickstarter Project My sister is a dental hygenist and has a patient who many, many years ago got a chemistry set for Christmas and gave himself a permanent gum injury by sticking one of the chemicals in his mouth. I do not know what the chemical was, but must have been rather aggressive from what my sister describes. Of course she also has a patient who still has a BB lodged in his cheek (the kind of cheek that would be involved in a dental x-ray) from an incident involving his brother and a BB gun, also many, many years ago. -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Derheimer, Dan G Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 2:32 PM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Heirloom Chemistry Set Kickstarter Project Sounds like their safety information is "heirloom" also. Dan Derheimer Director Environmental Health & Safety Indiana University Bloomington 1514 E. 3rd St. Bloomington, IN 47405 dderheim**At_Symbol_Here**iu.edu 812-855-3234 www.ehs.iu.edu -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Peter Zavon Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 10:37 AM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Heirloom Chemistry Set Kickstarter Project This sounds kind of interesting but I begin to question the validity of the entire enterprise (especially their stated concern for safety) when I see that benzene is one of the compounds provided with their kit AND that the MSDS they offer for benzene not only lacks any mention that it is a known human carcinogen, but includes the line "Chronic Exposure: No information found." (It does state "Known Carcinogen" under Section 16: other information) It also states in Section 8 that no airborne exposure limits have been established while burying the OSHA and ACGIH limits in Section 15 Regulatory information. I've not checked any of their other MSDS, but benzene is so widely known in this regard that I have to wonder what these people think they are doing. Peter Zavon, CIH Penfield, NY PZAVON**At_Symbol_Here**Rochester.rr.com -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Ralph B. Stuart Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 8:11 AM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU Subject: [DCHAS-L] Heirloom Chemistry Set Kickstarter Project Here's something that I think will interest many on the DCHAS-L list... it addresses chemical safety issues in interesting ways. - Ralph http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1742632993/heirloom-chemistry-set Heirloom Chemistry Set Kickstarter Project This is the chemistry set you always wanted as a kid but either didn't get it or you got stuck with some cheap plastic wannabe... Ralph Stuart, CIH Chemical Hygiene Officer Cornell University rstuart**At_Symbol_Here**cornell.edu Find West on Twitter <http://twitter.com/#!/WestPharma> and LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/company/west-pharmaceutical-services?trk=fc_badge>. ________________________________ The contents of this message are confidential and may be privileged. If you have received this message in error, please permanently delete it, along with any files that may be attached to this message, without reading, printing, copying, forwarding or otherwise distributing it. Please notify the sender of the error immediately so that we can prevent it from happening again.
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