Blog
Safety Focus of the Week – Chemical Awareness
A wide variety of chemicals are stored and used on our jobsites and shops including engine fluids & lubricants, fuels & additives, concrete additives/finishers, release agents, adhesives, caulking, paints, cleaning agents, CAD welds, even hand cleaner.
An important aspect of a safe job site is for all employees using chemicals to be trained and informed on the hazards of the chemicals. This information, along with a detailed summary of the chemical properties, handling, exposure hazards, first aid, cleanup, etc. is conveniently organized on the MSDS sheets (material safety data). It is required that every chemical used in the workplace be documented with a readily available MSDS Sheet, which we keep organized in a master summary available electronically and in hardcopy with the job site foreman.
Therefore:
- If you purchase a chemical that is not in our MSDS collection, then you must ask for one when the product is purchased and then provide a copy to Stu or Matt and one for the job site. Stu or Matt may want to review and provide a safety briefing on the use of certain chemicals.
- All job site foreman need to review of all chemicals used and stored on a project to verify that each chemical has a corresponding MSDS on site and in the ECI MSDS Collection. Call Matt if you need assistance in locating any missing MSDS sheets.
This link shows a typical MSDS sheet for PVC cement:
