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Particularly Hazardous Substance Review for 160 MIT Chemicals
Particularly hazardous substances (PHS) are those chemicals with special acute or chronic hazards. In the Laboratory Standard, OSHA does not provide a list of PHSs because new chemicals are continually being developed and tested in laboratories. The OSHA Laboratory Standard defines a PHS as being a select carcinogen, reproductive toxin, or having a high degree of acute toxicity.
The EHS Office has reviewed 160 chemicals in use at MIT and determined whether or not they are PHS. We have compiled this information in a downloadable spreadsheet that lists chemical name, Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) Number, and PHS Status, as well as criteria on which the status is based (carcinogen, reproductive toxin, and acute toxicity). The chemical name column and CAS Number can be searched using the Find function of the Excel spreadsheet.
Please use this link to download the PHS list (Excel) to your computer.
If your chemical is not on this list, it does not mean that it is not a PHS. You will have to do a determination using the information in the Chemical Hygiene Plan template.
OSHA defines PHS as the following:
- Select carcinogens are those that are listed by OSHA, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) as carcinogens.
- Reproductive toxins are chemicals that may adversely affect male and female reproductive health and the developing fetus. One source of information about reproductive toxins that is the Proposition 65 list developed by the State of California and updated annually.
- Chemicals having high acute toxicity are those that have oral, inhalation, or dermal LD 50 s below specified values listed in the OSHA Lab Standard.
A complete description of how to determine whether a chemical is a Particularly Hazardous Substance and where to find needed information is in the Chemical Hygiene Plan template (Part II, Section10).
Note: Effective January 2009, as specified in the Chemical Hygiene
Plan Template, inventories must be maintained for all hazardous
chemicals. Hazardous chemicals include chemicals for which there
is statistically significant evidence of health effects following
exposure as well as flammable and explosive substances. The use
of the online ChemTracker inventory system has been paid for by
the EHS Office and is free to you. Its use is recommended but not
required. For more information on the ChemTracker system contact
the EHS Office at 2-3477 or email environment@mit.edu .
Please contact the EHS Office if you need additional information.
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