The Occupational Health & Safety Act states that MSDS must be available in the workplace for all hazardous materials. Departmental policy requires those people handling hazardous materials to be familiar with MSDS prior to handling. In addition, the sheets must be readily accessible by all workers who may be exposed to the hazardous material to which it relates.
When ordering chemicals from a supplier, ask the supplier to fax the appropriate sheet to you at your fax number (if this is not requested and the chemical has been ordered recently by others, the suplier does not routinely send the information or may send it to a central point).
Within the Department, MSDS are available from the following sources:
- hard copies in binders, organized alphabetically, located near the shipping/receiving areas.
- Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety: On-line databases of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.
- Access for University of Toronto users only.
- Fisher Scientific , then use search function for chemical in question
- University of Toronto Environmental Health & Safety Web Site
- 9-978-7000 Aldrich emergency line
- 1-800-558-MSDS line