CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 12: Material Safety: a Personal and Technical Report on Hazardous Material Handling

The Major Elements of the Hazard Communication Standard 1 Title/Header and Section One - Product Information

The story, as I tell it, behind the fictional product, Tcat’s Unreal Kleen, is that our hero, Tcat, when he moved into a new place of residence, found that the previous tenant has left behind several containers of insidious chemicals. Now, as he states on the Study Exam 4 Less web site¹⁵⁰, “40 years of fussing with electronics” and “when not writing or teaching … he is doing research. … He decides to expand his fussing and research to new horizons.

So, one week, while his better half was away teaching tech classes and was not there to keep him out of mischief, Tcat begins fussing and researching with his new found chemical inventory in his fully equipped chemical research laboratory (the kitchen sink). Four days and at least two emergency responses from the local fire department later, Tcat had stumbled upon what he considered the almost perfect formula for an electronic contact cleaner.

On the fifth day, he added final the ingredient to his concoction, something that came from his refrigerator and perfection was at hand. As Tcat describes this secret ingredient “It’s a surprisingly light yet hardy base that is excellent for basting both, beast or foul. Delicately spiced to excite the palate with an aroma that stimulates the appetite.” So much for the infamous “trade secret” of Tcat’s Unreal Kleen.

Okay, now sift through the MSDS for Tcat’s Unreal Kleen -- # W2B40, one section at a time.

First off, there is no standard format for MSDSs. As long as all the required information is in the MSDS, it is considered to be in compliance. The order of, how it is sub-grouped, the amount of and type of and/or the means used to explain or describe this information will greatly differ from MSDS to MSDS. If you take the MSDS for Tcat’s Unreal Kleen and rename the section titles, add or eliminate sections, shuffle the order of sections, cut and paste parts of one section into other sections, delete some of these parts, append to others, add new parts and then drastically change the wording, that should give a fair idea on what to expect.

The Major Elements of the Hazard Communication Standard 1 Title/Header and Section One - Product Information