PLEASE correct me if I have this wrong, but my understanding is that the new GHS requirements (HazComm2012) is part of the Hazard Communications Standard. Laboratories such as ours work under the Laboratory Standard, which doesn't include these new standards. Neither one strictly applies to students, who are not employees.

 

That said, the staff (employees who purchase and distribute hazardous materials) should be trained to read and recognize the labels they will be receiving from manufacturers and suppliers. I put together materials from OSHA QuickCards to train our staff. I can share, if wanted.

 

Students should be given enough information to know what they're dealing with: Substance name (written out), concentration, hazards. We find it useful to label bottle lids, to facilitate returning them to the correct bottles.  Adding the pictograms (electronic files are available from OSHA) and hazard/precaution  statements will expose them to the GHS system, as they may well work under that standard. There’s no point in teaching them to be students, when we could be teaching them to be thoughtful chemists, consumers and citizens. You can fit a surprising amount of information on a small label if you use a Word table. Cover all with clear packing tape.

 

Sheila Kennedy

Safety Cooridnator | Teaching Laboratories

UCSD Chemistry & Biochemistry

858 – 534 – 0221

 

-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Osterby, Meg
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2013 8:18
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] GHS and secondary container labeling in acedemia

 

I also need a solution to this issue.  We are a small technical college and have less than 100 total lab students spread between 3-5 courses each semester.  We use 60 mL droppers for most lab solutions, since larger amounts are far more than we would use in years.  Even so, our dropper bottles are used multiple semesters.  We store them in wooden sleeves on shelves in the stockroom.  In the past, we've labeled them with the chemical name or formula and concentration only, since they are so small there isn't room for much more.  How do we deal with the new labeling requirements when there isn't physically room on the bottle for such a detailed label?  Would putting the labels on the wooden sleeves be sufficient?  (They don't go into the lab with the solutions, however, so the students using the solutions would never see them.)  I don't see a solution to this dilemma, since the bottle sizes are so small.

 

Meg Osterby

Lead Chemistry Instructor

Western Technical College

400 7th St. N.

LaCrosse, WI 54601

osterbym**At_Symbol_Here**westerntc.edu

608-789-4714

 

"It's  better to be careful 100 times, than to be killed once." 

                                                    Mark Twain

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Marlyn Newhouse

Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2013 8:37 AM

To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU

Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] GHS and secondary container labeling in acedemia

 

Dear Ones,

 

We stopped using the smaller bottles and are using 100 mL bottles.  We attach a test tube with a small pipette for the "dropper".  The label and test tube are secured with clear packing tape.

 

Blessings

 

Marlyn Newhouse, D.A.

Associate Professor of Chemistry

1050 Union University Drive

Jackson TN 38305

 

731-661-5295

mnewhous**At_Symbol_Here**uu.edu

> 

________________________________________

From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Melissa Charlton-Smith [charltonsmith**At_Symbol_Here**WVWC.EDU]

Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2013 7:42 AM

To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU

Subject: [DCHAS-L] GHS and secondary container labeling in acedemia

 

Out of curiosity, for those of you in academia, how are you handling GHS secondary container labeling in teaching lab situations where the average freshman student isn't exactly known for their attention to detail?  We often have a multitude of small dropping bottles with 30 to 50 ml which becomes a labeling nightmare because of lack of space for labels due to the small size of the container.

 

Mel

 

Mel Charlton-Smith

School of Sciences Chemical Hygiene Officer-NRCC Lab Coordinator, Lecturer BS-CHO program Department of Chemistry WV Wesleyan College Buckhannon, WV 26201

 

charltonsmith**At_Symbol_Here**wvwc.edu<mailto:charltonsmith**At_Symbol_Here**wvwc.edu>

304-473-8355