Making sure the information in a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is accurate, complete and up to date is a real pain in the neck. But here's a true story to remind you of why it's so important.

MSDS Omission Leads to Fatality

The story takes place in 2001 at a steel mill in Chesterton, Indiana. The mill keeps an MSDS for each of the hazardous substances on site. That includes coke oven gas condensate. The MSDS says that coke oven gas condensate consists principally of water. This is true. But the MSDS omits a piece of vital information: the fact that the stuff is flammable, especially at lower temperatures.

This turns out to be a fatal omission. Steel workers at the mill are removing a leaky pipe containing coke oven gas condensate. It's February and temperatures have been brutally cold. The cold temperatures have frozen the water in the condensate. But the flammable parts are still liquid and able to travel through the pipes. They're what's leaking out of the pipe. When the workers start to remove the pipe, the flammable liquid spritzes out and soaks two of them. It also sprays all over a space heater and heat lamp, causing the fluid to ignite. As the flames reach the valve of the pipe the workers are trying to remove, there's a blast and more flammable liquid sprays everywhere. Two workers are killed.

The workers were unaware of the hazards posed by the condensate. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazardous Investigation Board (CSB), an independent federal agency, investigates the accident and concludes that describing the condensate's flammability in the MSDS might have prevented the accident and saved the workers' lives.

MSDS Inaccuracies Lead to Injuries, OSHA/OHS Liabilities

The OSHA Hazard Communication Standard and Canadian WHMIS laws require employers to keep an MSDS for each hazardous chemical they know to be present at their workplace to which a worker may be exposed. The MSDS describes the chemical's hazards and physical properties and lists safeguards to take when using or being around the chemical. This is information workers need to protect themselves.

That's why inaccuracies in and omissions from the MSDS can be so dangerous. In addition to fatalities and serious injuries (like in the Indiana case above), not including complete and accurate information in the MSDS can lead to violations.

Unfortunately, the MSDS is a technical document and the rules governing their contents can be pretty confusing. Consequently, MSDS mistakes happen all the time and HazCom remains a perennial source of OSHA citations.

Conclusion

The bottom line: Making sure your MSDSs are complete and accurate is one of the most important things you can do to prevent accidents and avoid citations. Next week, I'll set out four common MSDS traps and what you can do to avoid them.

YOU BE THE JUDGE

Security vs. Religious Rights

By Glenn Demby

WHAT HAPPENED

After several break-ins, a company installs a biometric security system at its plant. A group of Pentecostal workers refuse to let the company scan their right hands because they believe it will stamp them with the "Mark of the Beast" in violation of the Book of Revelation. The workers are subject to progressive discipline and ultimately fired. They sue.

WHO WON

An Ontario arbitrator finds the company liable for religious discrimination.

EXPLANATION

Although the company had legitimate security concerns, it also had an obligation to accommodate the workers' religious beliefs. The company didn't do enough to meet that duty. The only accommodation it offered was to allow the workers to scan their left rather than their right hand. When this solution proved inadequate, the company should have explored other options. Instead, it treated the workers' refusals as insubordination.

CITATION

407 ETR Concession Company v. National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers' Union of Canada, CAW, Canada, [2007] CanLII 1857 (ON L.A.) Jan. 29, 2007

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