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Subject: Re: MSDS question
Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 07:15:05 -0400
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Subject: Re: MSDS question
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 09:59:07 -0500
Author: Diane Amell


Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 09:05:23 -0400
Reply-To: List Moderator <esf**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
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From: List Moderator <esf**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
Subject: Re: MSDS question

	From: 	  ACTSNYC**At_Symbol_Here**cs.com
	Subject: 	Re: [DCHAS-L] MSDS question
	Date: 	May 27, 2006 8:43:23 AM EDT (CA)

 >For example, for your  safety programs, inside each and every  
telephone book in the US is a toll-free 800 number that will connect  
you to your appropriate Regional Poison Center for expert advice on  
all poisonings, whether by ingestion,  dermal or eye exposure, or  
inhalation.  They have access to the most up-to-date medical  
treatment recommendations and can put you in touch with appropriate  
health care practitioners in a variety of medical fields.

Well,,,, yes.  But again, in my field, the information the PC Centers  
have on art materials comes from the manufacturers just as the  
information on the MSDS is from the manufacturers.  And I often have  
serious disagreements with them about the ingredients the mfgs choose  
to list and those they have decided are "nontoxic."  

The best example of this I can give you is that until the late 1990s,  
manufacturers labeled lead-bearing ceramic glazes as not only  
"nontoxic" but "lead-free."  They did this on the basis of an acid  
leach test.  But people are not acid and water--we have many other  
mechanisms for appropriating lead from glass frits.  In 1985, I  
provided the industry through the ASTM D-4236 committee a copy of a  
study showing there was no difference in bioavailability between lead  
frits and red lead by both ingestion and inhalation in animals.  They  
ignored me until there were actual deaths in nursing homes after  
elderly patients ingested their little cups of glaze thinking it was  
medicine.  Later, I was an expert witness in two cases of allegedly  
(they settled) brain-damaged kids whose mothers worked with ceramic  
glazes thinking they were safe.

That acid leach test (ASTM D 5517) is still used to test the safety  
of artist's paints!  And lead is just one of dozens of toxic art  
material ingredients about which I have questions.  Artists materials  
are exempt from the CPSC lead and cadmium paint rules and contain  
just about anything.  

The PC centers are wonderful for immediate response.  After that,  
find out what is in the product and look up the chemicals  
yourself.  PC Centers only concentrate on acute effects and not long  
term organ damage, sensitization, cancer, birth defects, etc.  You  
may need that chronic information for follow up medical surveillance.

Monona Rossol

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