edited by MIRIAMC. NAGEL Avon High Schwl Avon. CT 06001
The ACS Chemical Health and Safety Referral Service Barbara Gallagher American Chem,cilf Sacicly 1155 S xteenln Street, h W. Washmgton. DC 20036 The American Chemical Society, with a membership of 127,000, is the largest scientific and educational society in the United States devoted to a single science. Both as a society and through its members, it has contributed to the knowledge base on which prudent persons can build in occupational health and safety. In ~ a n u a r y1980, the Society inaugurated its Chemical Health and Safety Referral Service to handle inquiries from memhers and the public on chemical health and safetv matters. w h y is such a service needed? Over the past several years there has been much legislation passed to protect the health and safetv rirhts of all of us at ouriohs and in our environment in general. k e have an alphabet of legislation, including TOSCA. RCRA. OSHA. NIOSH. EPA. and the list eoes on and on. And we have a growing number of chemical substahces which are being identified daily. Chemical Abstracts, from 1965 to 1978, registered about five million unique chemical structures and adds about 350.000 new structures . per . vear to its data base. All of this information has been recorded somewhere, and most of it has been organized into some searchable form, much of i t in computerized svstems. However, manv.. people . do not know how to obtain such information. That is where we can help. Our service is intended to he a first step in the information-gathering process. The people who call on us are not safetv specialists. Our callers may have an extensive library in their own specialty hut he unfamiliar with the safety literature or organizations that deal with safety. The Referral Service exists to help memhers and others to comply with the legislation and to deal generally with this important and growing area of chemistry. We are open to any level of caller, hut most of our requests are from the bench chemist level or lab instructors. An analvsis of the affiliations of our requesters shows that 59% are in industrv. ".13%rovernment. 17%academia. and 11%individuals. Industry r e 4 e s t s come'from newspap&, wire services, law firms. insurance com~anies.mostlv small chemical comnanies. hut also many of the large companies. Our government reouesters include federal. state. and local eovernments. The schools are large and small and varied from grade school to colleze level. W; are not in competition with "hot lines" or emergency services or with specialized data bases. We do try to maintain an awareness of these sources as a place to which people can he referred. We do not pretend to he specialists or have all the answers, hut we do tr; to have information about resources so we will know the kinds of answers that they can provide. What are some of our resources? Our mainstay is our book collection. We try to keep abreast of the latest materials being "Safely Tips" is a source of safety Intormation and practical ruggaslions to meet the special needs ol high school chemistry teachers. n Is also idended lo be a forum for Ieachersto share their experiences and seek solutions to satety-related problems.
650
Journal of Chemical Education
published, both reference and textbooks. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, data collections, directories, and catalogs are some of the kinds of materials we have. We also have access to the on-line services of Dialog, SDC, and BRS. If you are familiar with these on-line services, you know that they provide access to data bases covering chemistry, environment, medicine, toxicology, and many other categories. Therefore, our resource collection is extended to publications not available in our library. Manv of our calls are from v e o ~ l ewho have iust been aopointed to a safety committee or have been asked to forma safetv committee. or suddenlv have resnonsibilitv for trainine otheis in safety. We try to be aware df generalsafety information on how to set UD a safetv committee and he able to suggest films and film sources. ~ d u c a t o r and s employers have requested information on films they can use to train their students or employees in safe handling of chemicals, proper eve protection, and hazards specific to laboratories. ~ i o h a b l ythe largest singlecategory of questions we get is on safe disposal procedures. Most of our callers are not large generators that fall within the EPA waste disposal regulations. If you are a small generator of waste, EPA does not necessarily address your disposal needs. However, the people that we have talked to who have a "couple of pounds" of this or a"small hottle"of that to get rid of, are not only interested in their personal safety but also in the ecological effect of their disposal procedures. They feel that if there are enough small generators using improper ~rocedures.thev are causine the same kinds of nroblems as iarge gener&xs:~nd the area of disposal for small quantities of specific chemicals is one that has the least amount of published information.' I have a feelina that because our societv is so prone to lawsuits, organizatick and individuals are lbath to attach their names t o specific guidelines for procedures. One of the most complete scxrcesthat we have available is the now out-ofprint "MCA Laboratory Waste Dispoal Manual." However, before we ever offer one of these pr&edures as a resource, we check it with one of our safety consultants to he sure that i t is still a valid and safe procedure. We also have inquiries that seek answers that we are not equipped to handle and do not fall within the scope of a referral service. We have been asked about a bottle or a barrel of an unlabeled substance and what disposal procedures should be used. We must explain that we cannot provide the analytical services that would he needed to determine what the substance is before a disposal procedure can he recommended. A very high percentage of our requests are to find out if a specific chemical has any hazardous or toxic properties and what precautions should he taken. A good number of these can be satisfied with safety data sheets from the NIOSH Occupational Health Guidelines, the Chemical Hazard Response Information Svstem (CHRIS), the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Documentation for TLV's, or the GE Material Safety Data Sheets. This article is based on a speech presented before the Division of Chemical Health and Safety,ACS National Meeting, Washington, DC. August 31.1983. For further information on waste disposal, refer to the following Safety Tips columns: J. CHEM. Eouc., 58,825(1981).59.331 (1982). and 60,490(1983).
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We have been encouraged by some of the follow-up information we have received on resources that have been suggested. One correspondent detailed a litany of hazardous situations that existed in the high school where he taught. We recommended our own safety manual, "Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories," the National Academy of Sciences' "Prudent Practices for Handling Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories," and a couple of others that we thought would give him the help he needed to convince his principal that, indeed, the situations that existed were hazardous. Several months later, we received another litany, but this p d. v storage time he told us that. (1) the school's chemical s u.. room was no longer used as a science teacher's office; (2) the chemical storage room was now kept locked a t all times and access to it wasunder the control ofihechcmistry teacher; (3) anexhaust fan had heen installed in thesrienre r l a s n ~ o o m / laboratory and the room was no longer used for the bulk
storage of methanol; (4) the safety officer from a local universitv was now under contract to do lab insnections of all hieh schoois in the region; and (5) a section of the'school library w& now reserved for safety literature.
I am not saying that this was a result of the excellence of our Referral Service, but it was aided by the fact that we were able to provide some direction to an interested and dedicated teacher. T o summarize, we serve anyone in need of help, hut usually we aid those who are not familiar with the resources of safetv information. We provide referrals to literature, films, educational courses, or organizations that can provide the answers. We answer calls to (202)872-4511,and we answer letters addressed to the American Chemical Society, 1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036. We give the information as quickly as possible, usually within a day or two.
Volume 61
Number 7 July 1984
651
