When working with or around any type of hazardous chemical, you need to make sure that you are doing everything properly to maintain a safe environment. This, of course, will start by having good safety policies and procedures in place so that a spill or other type of accident does not occur. Just as important, however, is making sure that you have the information that is needed so you can react to any situation quickly and appropriately.
The best place to gather information about a chemical is going to be the material safety data sheet or MSDS. This sheet will include information about the chemical, what hazards are associated with it, how to clean it up, and much more. Many people, however, incorrectly assume that the MSDS is going to have all the information they could need to deal with any situation, but that is not the case.
MSDSs have general information about the chemical and how to use it safely. It will not tell you things like what to do based on very specific situations. For example, the MSDS may say that if someone is exposed to a chemical, they should seek medical attention. It generally will not, however, specify different steps based on how much exposure there was or what part of the body was exposed. To optimize safety, you need to use the MSDS combined with facility-specific details to come up with your plan.
