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The Color of Safety L. L. Munchausen and W. H. Corkern Southeastern Louisiana University. Hammond, LA 70402 Organization of chemical storage areas and student safety are related areas of serious concern to those who teach chemistry. The advent of "safety data labeling" has been of great assistance as it allows individuals who havevery little knowledge of chemical nomenclature or chemical reactivity to recognize by color and symbol from across the room the nature of the chemical hazard, if any, that is represented by a particular compound. However, there are still some containers on our shelves that do not have the safety labels. The following is a description of a project undertaken at Southeastern Louisiana University that can be used to improve chemical storage and also be adapted for a classroom exercise to improve student awareness and build literature sesrching skills. An extensive labeling project was begun several years ago in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University to account for reagents that had either been acquired prior to safety labeling or been repackaged. Avery labels were obtained in the five colors corresponding to those used in the J. T. Baker "Saf-T-Date" system, i.e., red for flammable compounds, yellow for oxidizing agents, blue for toxics, white for corrosives, and orange for relatively nonhazardous materials. Rubber stamps were made by the local print shop to correspond to the pictograms in the Fluka Chemicals Catalog with the addition of stamps for water reactive substances and carcinogens. The text of the label was gleaned from several written sources on chemical properties which are listed as references below (1-7). Each label contained the following information: (I) IUPAC name, (2) the most common alternate names, (3) the flash point (open-cup method preferred), (4) tonicities, (5)irritation data, (6) carcinogenic or mutagenic data, (7) pictograms for the major hazards, and (8) specific risk phrases. The risk phrases include such things as "Caution: Farms Peroxides" to "Causes Severe Burns" and "Absorbed Through the Skin". Emphasis was always on the effects in humans where there was a choice for toxicity and irritation data. Since the color of the label corresponds to the major hazard, two or more major hazards can be represented by stripes or bands made on the Avery label with broad-tipped, permanent markers-the darker color in stripes across the lighter colored label. For obvious legal reasons, it was critical to apply Labels t o bottlesin such a way asnut tu obscure the factory label. As the first copy of a label was completed, it was applied to the center of a sheet of
paper for compilation in alphaberiral order in a loose-leaf binder. This comp~lntion serves two purposes: ( 1 I a reference nlurcc for preparing additional Inhela tin newly aoquiredchemicals and (2, analphahetrcalin. dex of chemicals that are not stored in alphabetical order. Each sheet of paper is then comnleted bv enterine the IUPAC name at the top and the storage area {room number, binnumher.eu.) in rheuppcr right corner of the page. In order to cross-rrtrr. ence this index, sheets with the common name were entered without labels but crossreferenced to the sheet with the label and IUPAC name. Once the labels were an the bottles, posters were placed in the labs exolainine the meanines of abbreviations and colar~,and a copy of the compiled sheets was made a\a~lablein the chemical storage area. At Southeastern the labeling project was directed by faculty with the assistance of student worken. Student response to the system in those labs where it was used was verv enthusiastic and annreciative. An alternative suggestion is &at students be organized into groups, given one or more com-
pounds to mvesrigate, and arked to design the labels according to this method. Caed in this way, the labeling project will enhance the students Literature searching skills and make them more aware of chemical hazards and storage problems. An additional result of this ~ r o i e e is t that not only is the chemical storieiarea better oreanized but chemicals that no longer have lahelsor =,him have decomposed can be idmtifird for d~spoaal.
Literature Clted 1. "Fire Protection Guide on Hazsrdous Materials." N s ~ tionai Fire Proteefion Assoc. (US.! Circ 1972. No.
SSP-IA. 2. Mdlan. I.: Meltan, E. Encyclopedia of Chemical Lobeling;Ch~micalPuhlishing:New York. 1961. 3. sax, N. I. cancer causing Chamieals; van Nosirand Reinhold: New York. 1981. 4. Sax, N. 1. Dangerous P r o p e r l l ~of~ Induairioi Moteri.Is. 4th ed.; Van Nostrand Reinhold: New York. NY 1975. 5. Tstken,R.L.;Lovi..R. J..Sr.Rogislryof ToricEff
