Particularly Hazardous Substances

The OSHA Lab Safety Standard specifically mandates that labs develop SOPs for handling “Particularly Hazardous Substances”, which they define as Select Carcinogens, Reproductive Toxins and Acute Toxins. If you are unsure if a chemical falls into one of these categories, check the MSDS and the container label. Contact Environment, Health & Safety, 893-4899, if you have questions about the chemicals you intend use.

For lists or definitions of such materials see:

Select Carcinogens:

List of Carcinogens —http://www.esh.lanl.gov/carcinogens/alph.pdf

Acutely Hazardous Materials:

Acutely Hazardous Materials: Substances with a high degree of acute toxicity are those that can cause death, disability, or serious injury after a single, relatively low-level exposure. Pharmaceuticals and biological substances can also present Highly Acute Hazards. The following table denotes the OSHA-defined toxicity designations, for various routes of exposures. Find the LD50 on a material safety data sheet (MSDS) or in the Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS). Compare the LD50/LC50 to the table to determine if it is acutely toxic.

OSHA Hazard Designation	Oral LD50 (rats, mg/kg)	Skin Contact LD50* (rabbits, mg/kg)	Inhalation LC50* (rats, ppm for 1 hr)
Highly toxic	<50	<200	<2000 ppm

Footnotes:

*. LD50- value is the amount of a solid or liquid material that it takes to kill 50% of test animals (for example, mice or rats) in one dose.
*. LC50- The concentration of the chemical in air that will kill 50% of the test animals exposed to it.

EPA List of Extremely Hazardous Substances

Reproductive Toxins:

Chemicals Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer or Reproductive Toxicity