-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart, Ralph <Ralph.Stuart**At_Symbol_Here**KEENE.EDU>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Thu, Apr 12, 2018 10:57 am
Subject: [DCHAS-L] "Read the SDS"

My thanks to everyone who responded to my SDS inquiry earlier this week. I'd like to share some context and thoughts in response to the many helpful comments.

1. The document that sparked my inquiry is a new document describing Green Chemistry alternatives for undergrad organic chemistry teaching labs. For reasons that are not clear to me, the authors developed a novel hazard identification and assessment system that includes a variety of sources rather than relying on GHS information. Since GHS information can be expected to be directly available to people working with chemicals, I think that it is important to use GHS as the starting point for discussions of chemical risks. The authors then threw in the "Read the SDS" disclaimer with no explanation of what would be found there that would improve upon their system.
More information about the Green Chemistry publication can be found at
https://www.mygreenlab.org

2. As was indicated during the discussion, there are many efforts underway within various ACS groups to better identify what laboratory safety skills students need to develop and many helpful supporting materials (guidelines, technical articles, popular articles, etc.) can be found by starting a search at http://www.acs.org/safety
People interested in practical aspects in teaching SDS interpretation are well-served by using "Sigmann" as a search term.

In the context of those resources, the relative values of an SDS, a GHS label, and more inclusive chemical safety information as education and operational tools is a topic of active ongoing research within various ACS groups. As was suggested, some of us think that a mini-SDS might be a helpful educational tool in approaching this in teaching settings. We expect to continue exploring what opportunities this approach presents within the Committee on Chemical Safety's Safety Advisory Panel.

4. As several people pointed out, the ability to critically read an SDS is as important as for any other literature. One teaching tool to support this is the CRAP test that librarians have developed for helping 21st century students assess web-based information. See for example,
https://libraries.mercer.edu/research-tools-help/citation-tools-help/evaluating-sources
Perhaps this can be extended to more specifically applied to SDS's?

5. The primary Lesson I Learned from the discussion is the reminder that a single SDS, or simply collecting SDSs for a chemical process will not serve as an adequate risk assessment. In my view, the role of the SDS and other safety reference materials is to start a fact-based discussion of the safety aspects of lab chemistry that gets beyond the traditional rules-based approach to lab safety. These live discussions are where safety culture and technical safety skills meet and safety education occurs.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts on this topic. I'm sure that this will be a topic of continuing interest, as Neal indicated, for as long as we have jobs ;).

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859

ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu

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