1. A chemist has chosen to use benzene in a product formulation and comes to you to help him to classify the mixture. Benzene is a known carcinogen. He asks you to help him to determine how much he can use so that he does not have to put the health hazard pictogram on the label. What is the maximum, in percent, he can use?

b. Another chemist suggests changing the formula to use toluene instead of benzene. However, the revised formulation requires that toluene be used in the formula at the 20% level. The CAS number for toluene is 108-88-3. The chemist asks you to help determine the following if he makes the switch to toluene.

i. What is the classification of the formulated product if toluene is the only hazardous component?

ii. What is the pictogram that will go onto the label?

iii. What is the signal word?

iv. What is the information that needs to be communicated on the label about prevention, response, storage, and disposal of the product?

v. In your opinion, is this an acceptable substitute for benzene?

2. You have received a safety data sheet from a supplier and you suspect that the supplier has not properly classified sulfuric acid. Before you make a call to the supplier, you decide to check for yourself how others have classified sulfuric acid. Go to the web site of the European Chemicals Agency (www.echa.com) and enter into the box the CAS number for sulfuric acid (CAS# 7664-93-9) and check the “I have read and I accept the legal notice.” Go to the classification and labeling for this chemical compound. The supplier label contains the GHS05 Corrosion pictogram, the GHS07 exclamation mark and a signal word of warning.

a. Does the information in the EU CLP classification database agree with the pictogram in the supplier SDS? If not, what pictogram(s) do you think should be on the supplier SDS?

b. The supplier SDS contains the signal word “Warning.” Do you agree that this is the correct signal word as reflected in the CLP database? If not, what is the correct signal word?

c. If you call the supplier and they are unwilling to change the SDS to fix the errors that you have found, what advice will you give to your procurement and manufacturing operations teams about continuing to accept sulfuric acid shipment from this supplier? What criteria will you give procurement to use when qualifying new suppliers of chemical substances?