MSDS Required for Plated Parts?

A. Hi Dave.
If you're unwilling to expose anyone to hazards, real or perceived, you shouldn't let your lab students touch it with bare hands.

Years ago hexavalent chromate was everywhere. The yellowish internal components of door hardware, electrical fixtures, many hinges, auto carburetors, yellowish screws and nuts, etc., were all hexavalent chromium. But perceptions of danger and reaction to perceived dangers have changed radically in the last few decades.

But since they will see hexavalent chromate in all those places, I don't think you need to shield that equipment from view ... just provide cheap vinyl gloves and tell then not to touch it without gloves. Teaching them that gloves are appropriate to such situations is a good safety lesson anyway (the fact that such gloves create plastic waste is yet another consideration and more food for thought).

How real is the danger from touching it if someone accidentally does? Surely infinitesimal -- but we can't run contrary to public opinion and government pronouncements.

Luck & Regards,


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

A. This is how I responded to our customer's request for MSDS on zinc & chromate coatings.

"I have investigated your request for Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for materials applied to your parts. Please find enclosed MSDSs for materials including oil, wax and zinc metal that ORP employees may come in contact with as a result of handling rods processed by MMF.

"I have contacted several of our chemical suppliers and have determined that no MSDSs for dried chromate conversion coatings or zinc phosphate coatings are readily available. Also, according to 29 CFR 1910.1200 (regarding Hazard Communication) articles are exempt from the standard to maintain MSDSs.

An article is defined in the standard as:

"A manufactured item (i) which is formed to a specific shape or design during manufacture; (ii) which has end use functions(s) dependent in whole or in part upon its shape or design during end use; and (iii) which does not release, or otherwise result in exposure to, a hazardous chemical, under normal conditions of use.'

"An example of the difference between an affected chemical and an article might be that if you purchase turpentine ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] at a hardware store, you are provided an MSDS. If you purchase a hammer with a painted handle (or zinc plated nuts & bolts), no MSDS for the coating is required.

"As a result of numerous discussions with MMF's chemical suppliers and other sources (including the editor of "Products Finishing" Magazine), I have determined that I am unable to provide MSDS's for the coatings as you requested. Further, I have found no evidence of any governmental requirement for manufacturers to maintain MSDS's for finished coatings which are adherent to articles they manufacture.

"Please let me know if I can be of further assistance in this matter."

A. I took quite a different approach in a talk I gave on ISO14000 issues at the AESF Empire State Regional last week.

In it, I said that, 5 years ago, Cadillac in Canada was so concerned about exposure of skin to chromated parts, that they started to make their workers wear gloves during handling.

So, even if no MSDS are available, I feel that someone (e.g. AESF, MAMF, NAMF, MFSA) should get the information on this issue, and come up with something that will protect the jobshops from potential liability, not to mention protecting people from exposure to hexchrome from the "chem film".

The larger jobshops who do this on their own will be doing themselves a favor. The smaller jobshops should gang together to find the information.

 If we were talking about finished articles that were chrome plated or gold plated, or anodized, or powder coated, I would agree with Craig. Because, as far as anyone knows, there is simply no reason for concern about exposure to such parts or handling of them, so why fill the world with meaningless paperwork if the law doesn't require it.

But I have to agree with Tom that in the case of chromated parts we may not yet have hard & fast proof that chromated parts are hazardous to handle, but many of us certainly have our suspicions. And in such a case the "no controlling legal authority" approach -- which our politicians are able to use to protect themselves because they write the laws -- is unlikely to work as well for the rest of us :-)

A. I've never been involved in the preparation of such MSDSs, but it is something that is sometimes done. I have seen them, for example, shipped with the replacement brake disks for electric motors.

A. The main problem here is California's Proposition 65 -- which has deemed that almost everything (including chrome) causes some form of cancer or reproductive harm and requires businesses to identify them. It also lists carbon black, which is often used in these parts to make them black.

 Thanks Deanna. The other comments on this thread are pushing 20 years old, and are thus rather dated in our changing world with its trivalent rather than hexavalent chromate coatings, with the switchover from MSDS to SDS sheets, with RoHS compliance and 'substances of concern', etc. This week we learned that coffee has that same labeling requirement as well.

opinion! I taught safety in plating shops for several years and wrote some booklets on the subject; my personal opinion is that California's proposition 65 has done harm to people's safety. When every box of washers & nuts that an automobile mechanic opens warns him that he should scrub his hands with hot soap and water if he accidentally makes contact with one, after a very short while he is not going to limit himself to blowing off this warning, but he also is unlikely to give a second thought to those same warnings about asbestos & cadmium. When every flex connector for gas stove & gas dryer warns me that natural gas is carcinogenic and causes birth defects, I'll clearly have no respect for the same warning on kerosene heaters.

Regards,

A. Hi Deepak. Thanks for updating this conversation. A lot has changed since 2000 and it would be interesting to get people talking about this subject again :-)

(See also topic 41500)

Regards,

A. On a lark, I just google searched "MSDS Stainles steel" and to my surprise got a lot of results! You can tell the people who wrote these were doing their best with a clearly absurd proposition, since the traditional "routes of entry" for chemicals do not apply for a metal, and reporting on "toxicology information" for the component metals even though this is an alloy.