Use of Material Safety Data Sheets at Workplaces Handling Harmful Substances in Okayama, Japan

Abstract

Use of Material Safety Data Sheets at WorkplacesHandling Harmful Substances in Okayama, Japan: Akihiko SEKI, et al. Department of Public Health, Okayama University Medical School-In April 2000, the revised Industrial Safety and Health Law, which prescribes the creation and issue of material safety data sheets (MSDSs), was enforced in Japan. Before the enforcement, we conducted a survey relating to the use of MSDSs in hazardous workplaces in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. We sent questionnaires to all workplaces possibly using hazardous chemicals, and answers from 422 workplaces, where hazardous chemicals were used but not produced, were analyzed.One-third of the workplaces did not request MSDSs at the time of chemical transfer. In more than half of the workplaces, MSDSs were not posted or kept. The main reason for such lack of use or misuse of the MSDS system was a lack of knowledge and understanding of the system. In addition, half of the respondents considered that MSDS documents were unsatisfactory because of the difficult words used in them. These two problems, i.e., a lack of knowledge and understanding of the MSDS system, and the use of difficult words in the documents, should be remedied in order for the MSDS system to be implemented effectively and thereby protect workers from the harmful effects of chemicals. (J Occup Health 2001; 43: 95-100)

Accuracy, comprehensibility, and use of material safety data sheets: A review

“…Four of the articles found in this literature search [Kolp et al, 1993;Phillips et al, 1999;Seki et al, 2001;SmithJackson and Wogalter, 2007] focused on the issue of comprehensibility of MSDSs, and two [Sadhra et al, 2002;Niewohner et al, 2004] used different methods to explore issues of comprehensibility, including test/retest approaches, one-on-one interviews and self-administered questionnaires. See Table III for a summary of methodologies and results.…”

“…Four of the articles found in this literature search [Kolp et al, 1993;Phillips et al, 1999;Seki et al, 2001;Smith-Jackson and Wogalter, 2007] focused on the issue of comprehensibility of MSDSs, and two [Sadhra et al, 2002;Niewohner et al, 2004] included questions about comprehensibility in interviews with workers on the topic of chemical risks and MSDS format, respectively. Researchers Dalvie and Ehrlich [1999] South [Kolp et al, 1993;Phillips et al, 1999].…”

“…This study also determined that current formats impeded comprehensibility, in part because they provided too much information for people to process [Niewohner et al, 2004]. One study on comprehensibility was conducted across a range of large and small workplaces in Japan [Seki et al, 2001]. This research asked respondents whether eight words commonly used on MSDSs were understandable on a scale of 0-8.…”

“…Few studies examined workplace-or workerspecific factors that affected MSDS comprehension. Workplace size may play a role: one study noted that workers from larger, unionized workplaces showed somewhat better results than those from smaller companies [Seki et al, 2001]. In addition, a study that recruited participants from one large, unionized workplace [Phillips et al, 1999] had more positive comprehension results than did a study that drew from a spectrum of different sized, unionized workplaces [Kolp et al, 1993].…”

“…Five of these [Kolp et al, 1993;Phillips et al, 1999;Seki et al, 2001;Sadhra et al, 2002;Niewohner et al, 2004] also examined comprehensibility and one [Wright, 1998] also examined accuracy and completeness. Four of these studies were from New Zealand and Australia [Winder and Turner, 1992;Pirkis et al, 1997;Wright, 1998;Ruttenberg et al, 2001], three from the US [Kolp et al, 1993;Janicak, 1996;Phillips et al, 1999], two from the UK [Sadhra et al, 2002;Niewohner et al, 2004], and one each from Japan [Seki et al, 2001], Taiwan [Hu et al, 1998], and Canada [Saari et al, 1994]. MSDS use was studied predominantly in industrial workplaces, although one study in Australia looked at MSDS use in farming.…”