Name: ______

Lab Section: ______

SAFETY WORKSHEET

CHEMISTRY 1B LABORATORY

(5 POINTS)

(The following questions review safety information described in chem 1a.)

Location of:

Fire Extinguisher

Safety Showers

Eye Wash Stations

Baxter Medical Building

Nearest phone that can dial campus #s

Nearest phone that can dial off-campus

Campus Emergency Phone #

MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEETS

Another important aspect of safety in the chemistry laboratory is understanding the hazards of the materials you're working with. A useful (but not the only) source of information on the hazardous properties of chemicals are Material Safety Data Sheets or MSDS's. Read pages 20-27 and 42-44 of the ACS booklet, "Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories," which describe MSDS's and how to read them. After answering the following questions, log on to one or more of the websites shown below and print out a copy of the MSDS for your assigned chemical. Use a highlighter pen to highlight the chemical name and the section titles ("hazards identification", "first-aid measures", etc.) We will collect these print-outs and assemble them into a folder that will be kept in the lab.

Several sites containing MSDS's can be accessed via the department's webpage at http://www.chemistry.pomona.edu. Choose the links to "MolData" and then "Environmental Chemistry." Another option is to go directly to a chemical supplier such as Aldrich (http://www.sigma-aldrich.com). Aldrich requires that you "register" for their site, but the information is free. Google also yields good results when the compound name and MSDS are used as search terms

Define the following terms as they relate to MSDS's:

Acute / ______
Chronic / ______
Cumulative / ______
TWA / ______
TLV / ______
PEL / ______
OSHA / ______
IUPAC / ______
ACGIH / ______
LD50 / ______
LC50 / ______
Carcinogen / ______
Teratogen / ______
Mutagen / ______
Lachrymator / ______

What are the four major routes of entry of chemicals into the body?

  1. ______
  2. ______
  3. ______
  4. ______


OTHER SOURCES OF CHEMICAL INFORMATION

An important skill in science is knowing where and how to find the information you need on a given topic. As chemists, we often need specific information on the compounds that we're studying. The MSDS exercise just completed showed you how to find safety related information for chemical compounds. Two other standard sources of information for chemical compounds are:

  1. the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
  2. the Merck Index

Copies of these texts can be found in the reference section of the library. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the types of information that can be found in these references.

Look up your assigned chemical compound in the Merck Index. List two pieces of information that were not contained in the MSDS for your compound.

  1. ______
  2. ______

Find your compound in the appropriate section of the CRC Handbook (Elements & Inorganic Compounds or Organic Compounds). What information is given?

Also find a reference to your compound in any other section of the CRC and report your findings below.

updated June 13, 2005, CJT

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Safety