Töilet Plünger
Hazard to Self
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Fire diamonds
I haven't found a good place to look up fire diamonds for all sorts of materials. I've found them for common school lab items like aluminum shot,
ethanol, and acetone, but not for less common chemicals (I've been looking for ones for europium, gadolinium, and terbium for a pretty long time).
Anyway, where is the best place to find compact safety information that can be placed on a small label? Is it fine to use the MSDS of a chemical and
then choose warning symbols accordingly?
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Manifest
Script Kiddie Asshole
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Wikipedia articles of compounds have fire diamonds, you can right click, copy image source.
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
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Not all Wiki articles contain fire diamonds. Especially not those for the elements.
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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chemrox
International Hazard
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I was looking for a key and template for making fire diamonds. Haven't found a good site yet.
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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smaerd
International Hazard
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http://www.wolframalpha.com/widgets/view.jsp?id=f5bf0ba0a17e...
WolframAlpha has a pretty decent widget
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Texium
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Well, I just tested out that widget and it seems to work well for simple stuff, but doesn't leave you any better off than Wikipedia will.
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numos
Hazard to Others
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Fire diamonds are great as an easy hazard recognition (for instance there is a spill, if it's a 0-0-0, then you can shrug it off otherwise you might
take precautions, say specifically against fire if its a 2-4-1) , but they don't work so great to really know the compound. I use them to label all my
chemicals and I was creating a label for gold, which apparently has a health hazard of 2 - WTF? By that logic chloroform has the same toxicity of
Gold.
Anyways this site has the NFPA 704 for most elements:
http://periodictable.com/Properties/A/NFPALabel.html
Also the NFPA 704 (or fire diamonds) are not an official way to categorize chemicals. NFPA or National fire protection association tests and
determines the values for the chemicals.
You cannot publicly view all the chemical labels online, however you can buy the official NFPA 704 handbook, which lists all chemicals that have been
currently recognized by the NFPA (this still does not include all substances, as some simply don't have a rating as of today).
http://www.nfpa.org/catalog/product.asp?link_type=buy_box&am...
I have no desire to pay $40, but perhaps someone here does, might be a worthwhile investment.
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Texium
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Why are nickel and osmium rated 4 for flammability?!
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bismuthate
National Hazard
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Well it depends on the form they are in. Powdered nickel can be pyrophoric.
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Texium
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Well yeah, but so can many other metals and they aren't listed as a 4 for flammability.
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numos
Hazard to Others
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and Magnesium is a 1.... who knows, they had their reasons, but like I stated, these are not the most useful in knowing a compound.
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gdflp
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Magnesium is a 1 in what form, a brick of magnesium isn't very flammable, but the powdered stuff sure is. The MSDS can vary depending on what form of
the compound it is referring to.
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
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Anyone know of a good place to make a fire diamond label where the numbers are centered, in case I want to label hazards in a mini-MSDS? I would
probably have to use a different design because the normal fire diamonds are covered by a government standard.
I've personally seen MSDS sheets vary wildly between recommendations. One MSDS for terbium says that it "must be stored under an inert argon
atmosphere at all times," and "take all waste to the appropriate waste-processing facility for disposal." another says "No special precautions
required. For disposal, ignite pieces of metal and dispose of the oxide powder in the trash."
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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numos
Hazard to Others
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Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force  | | Anyone know of a good place to make a fire diamond label where the numbers are centered, in case I want to label hazards in a mini-MSDS?
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What I do is simply use the format H:0 F:0 R:0, each labeled by color. It's the same is essence
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MrHomeScientist
International Hazard
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Soon, fire diamonds won't be used any more. The new GHS system involves a lot of pictograms: http://www.stgermaincollins.com/hot_topics/ht0113.html
These are, in my opinion, far less effective than the fire diamond. If I see a 4 on the diamond I know to be extra careful and should probably consult
the MSDS again. If I see the "flammable liquids" pictogram, I have no idea how flammable it is - could be mildly flammable like diluted ethanol or
could be scarily flammable like carbon disulfide; the pictogram doesn't tell you anything. Unfortunately we'll be forced to switch over to the new
system at my work.
More information than you'd ever want to know is here: https://www.osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/ghs.html
More details on the pictograms can be found in section 4.3.3.
Note another stupidity in section 4.3.2:
"The signal word indicates the relative degree of severity a hazard. The signal words used in the GHS are
"Danger" for the more severe hazards, and
"Warning" for the less severe hazards. "
This is the only indication of severity on the new labels. I saw another document that stated most people become "confused" by more than these two
words, so these are the only labels and only one may be used per item. I'm sure just about everything will have "Warning" on it, which means everyone
will just ignore it and think of anything with that word as mostly benign. Dumbing-down is not the right way to handle safety.
Anyways here's a blank fire diamond template I made, nothing special. I have a better word template for stickers at home but can't access it right
now.
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Mailinmypocket
International Hazard
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I agree that those pictograms are rather clumsy and vague. Instead of fire diamonds using labels with horizontal colored fields is much less of a fuss
from a label printing standpoint than the diamonds, they fit better on labels too if you print on sticky labels
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Hexavalent
International Hazard
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http://www.compliancesigns.com/nfpaprintedselector.shtml
This website allows you to create fire diamonds as a preview for signs which you would order commercially. I find that using this tool and copying and
pasting the previews onto my labels is satisfactory.
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill
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Pyro
International Hazard
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I much prefer the old pictograms
I have found a source for these and use them around the lab, they are a lot easier on the eye than the new ones
all above information is intellectual property of Pyro.  |
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Brain&Force
Hazard to Lanthanides
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The GHS system an all of the pictogram systems look like something that would be suitable for children's toys (though I do like the orange pictograms,
especially the dead fish and the explosion).
I really like those horizontal labels! One of the ideas that I had was to just print colored numbers corresponding to the colored parts of the fire
diamond.
At the end of the day, simulating atoms doesn't beat working with the real things...
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Rogeryermaw
National Hazard
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just got the new u-line catalog this morning.
they have a full line of customizable d.o.t. diamonds:
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