Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and other safety information
In Canada, the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS for short) is a comprehensive national system for safe management of hazardous chemicals which is legislated by both the federal and provincial jurisdictions. WHMIS took several years to develop from joint participation and consensus of labour, industry, and government. The WHMIS legislation provides that workers must be informed about the hazards in the workplace and receive appropriate training to enable them to work safely. In summary, WHMIS delivers the necessary information by means of:
- cautionary labels on containers of controlled products
- the provision of an MSDS for each controlled product
- a worker education program
The ultimate goal is to create a safer workplace by providing workers with the knowledge and tools to enable them to work safely.
www.utoronto.ca/safety/whmis1.htm
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/occup-travail/whmis-simdut/index_e.html
However, under the old Pest Control Products Act, pesticides were excluded from WHMIS requirements because they were under a separate legislation. Therefore, there are no available MSDS sheets for many Canadian pesticide products. A legislative initiative is underway to make the provision of these MSDS s to workplaces mandatory. Please consult regularly the PMRA website (13 Jan 2009) Some pesticide MSDS are now listed in MSDS Search by manufacturer on the site of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. (December 2012)
When you find an MSDS for a particular product, keep in mind that it is developed by the producer. It will only list proven harmful chemicals. Therefore, it does not mean that, because no other ingredients than the pesticide active ingredient(s) are listed on the MSDS, none are present. How to identify a pesticide product using the MSDS sheet has been published by NCAP (JOURNAL OF PESTICIDE REFORM/ FALL 2000 • VOL. 20, NO. 3)
PANNA's Pesticide Data Base www.pesticideinfo.org The PAN Pesticides Database is your one-stop location for current toxicity and regulatory information for pesticides. To find out more about insecticides, herbicides and other pesticides select one of the choices. To learn more about their comprehensive collection of data sources see About the Data. This resource is a project of Pesticide Action Network North America.