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Safety when working with Muriatic Acid

I just started working with a chemical plant. the last two days I've been working with a production line that deals with Muriatic acid. My job is to pack containers in a box of 4. The only thing the company provide me is safety googles & rubber gloves. My question is how do I know that they are OSHA approved? This company does not have eye wash stations in the building. Is there a list of companies that are approved to operate with Muriatic Acid by OSHA somewhere in Internet? I have feeling I'll be working more with it in the future.

Rockin Chicago Dave
- Chicago Suburbs, Illinois, USA
2003

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2003

At virtually every corner hardware store in America people are unloading those cartons, and shelving the four bottles (usually without any protection at all) for purchase by untrained consumers--so I strongly doubt that there is an OSHA approved list of companies authorized to handle it. However, your company probably deals with enough of it that the amount on hand surpasses a threshold and imposes some community right-to-know reporting requirements, and perhaps some pollution-incident prevention procedures, etc.

Certainly since you are working exclusively with this, and will be handling many times more bottles than a hardware store clerk, the chances of an accident are significantly greater so goggles ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and rubber gloves ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] are very necessary. The goggles should have some kind of sticker or embossment showing that they are approved. I can't say from this distance if this is adequate personal protective gear or not. My first impression is that one or more eyewash stations would be required though. You can find an OSHA Hotline number in your phonebook.

It is easy to misread the tone of a letter since there are no voice inflections, but I get the impression that you don't accept the old wisdom "If you would work for a man, then work for him", and you might find yourself happier in another job :-)

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey