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

Section Ten - Storage Data 1 Section Twelve - Other Information

This section deals with whether the product is considered to be an environmental hazard, what regulations may be applicable, and what to do in the event of a spill or accidental release. A substance may be considered an environmental hazard if the substance may enter into the environment and cause an adverse effect to the environment. Areas of concern include storm water runoff, discharges to water treatment facilities, ground water contamination, ground and structure contamination, releases into the atmosphere and direct fauna and flora contamination.

In regards to environmental issues, use, transportation, disposal and releases into the environment of hazardous substances are heavily regulated not at the federal level, often at state or local level and sometimes at an international level. The major acts of federal legislation that are of concern are briefly described below. The issue of environmental regulatory compliance is far beyond the scope of this discussion on MSDSs and as such, I am only touching upon this subject as it directly relates to the reading of MSDSs.

However, you may just want to pay a bit of attention to any chemicals that listed here. If they are nasty enough that you employer must report spills or inform the community that they are there and you the one that actually is working with them, well, I think that you get the idea. That does not mean that all the evil nasty stuff will be listed here. There are many extremely hazardous chemicals that have not made their way on these lists, but here is where you will find the more common used ones.

• Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act¹⁶⁸ (SARA): The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) [also known as SARA Title III] provisions has four major sections: Section 301-303 pertains to emergency planning, Section 304 - emergency release notification, Sections 311-312 - community Right-to-Know reporting requirements and Section 313 - toxic chemical release inventory.
  
  
• Toxic Substances Control Act ¹⁶⁹(TSCA): The Toxic Substances Control Act provides EPA with broad authority to regulate chemicals and chemical substances whose manufacture, processing, distribution in commerce; use or disposal may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health and the environment. EPA is required to maintain an inventory (known as the "TSCA Inventory") of each chemical substance, which may be legally manufactured, processed, or imported in the United States. The TSCA Inventory, which currently contains over 75,000 chemicals, provides EPA an important tool for identifying, prioritizing, and evaluating toxic chemicals and for developing a profile of the chemical industry in the United States.
  
  
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ¹⁷⁰(RCRA): RCRA Subtitle C establishes a federal program to manage hazardous wastes from cradle to grave to ensure that hazardous waste is handled in a manner that protects human health and the environment. Therefore, EPA has established regulations and procedures for the generation, transportation, storage and disposal of hazardous waste handlers.

Section Ten - Storage Data 1 Section Twelve - Other Information