Just about every site has chemicals, whether it is something as basic as dishwashing detergent or toxic as hydrogen sulfide. The symptoms of exposure range from being severe and immediate such as a chemical burn to becoming debilitating after years of exposure such as silicosis. We have to ensure we know how to safely use and store all the chemicals and hazardous substances on our sites.
A great resource that we have here at Hyder is our subscription to 3E SDS, an online library that has over 5,000 chemical SDS’s available. When chemicals are brought on site we can use this system, like google, to search for the related SDS, saving it and having it accessible as required by OSHA. This is a great way to ensure we have all chemical SDS available for planning safe work and storage of chemicals on site.