The efficacy of material safety data sheets and worker acceptability

The primary purposes of this study were to determine how well the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) diffused information to workers, compare the efficacy of an OSHA type Form with the Chemical Manufacturer Association/ American National Standards Institute (CMA/ANSI Z400.1) structure and the International Chemical Safety Card (ICSC), and determine worker acceptability and understanding of MSDSs at a large national laboratory. The Adoption Diffusion Innovation Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and Value Expectancy Theory (Health Belief Model) provided the theoretical framework for this research.

An inventory questionnaire and quantitative testing were utilized to gather data from a purposively selected sample (N = 160) out of 824 union workers employed at a large national laboratory. Eighteen crafts comprised the 160 workers studied. Instrumentation utilized in the study consisted of a forty- question inventory on acceptability of the MSDS to the worker and a ten-question MSDS comprehensibility test administered to each worker as a pretest and posttest. The workers were partitioned into four groups of forty randomly selected test subjects. The treatments or independent variables, three differently formatted MSDSs, were introduced as references during the posttest. A different format was given to each of three groups and none was provided to the control group. The MSDSs were controlled for level of readability and the specific chemical addressed was the same on all three. Gain scores between the pretest and posttest were equated to diffusion efficacy of each treatment format. Relationships between the variables of age, education level, years worked, and number of chemicals used were evaluated for effect on the efficacy of each format.

Descriptive statistics and the chi-square test were used to analyze the inventory on worker acceptability and understanding of the MSDS. Inferential statistics including the t-test, ANOVA, Dunnett's test, Sidak's multiple comparison tests were utilized to determine significant differences in gain scores between pretests and posttests of formats, between formats and controls, and among formats and groups of variables.

Findings disclosed are: (a) the sample population of union workers studied were well trained on the MSDS and understood and accepted them as viable documents; (b) there were however, lesser percentages of workers that needed to be better persuaded to use the MSDS at the national laboratory; (c) all three MSDS formats significantly diffused information to workers, although approximately one third of the information on the forms was not absorbed; (d) the rank order of finish between the three different formats was ICSC, OSHA type Form and CMA/ANSI Z400.1, respectively, however, there were no significant differences in the scores; (e) there were significant differences in how well each form answered specific test questions with the ICSC and OSHA type Form out performing the CMA/ANSI Z400.1 structure.