Basic Safety Information (currently being written , it is incomplete)

This handout divides hazards into physical, chemical, radiation, and electrical catagories.

MSDS definition. An MSDS Sheet is a material safety data sheet. It is produced by a manufacturer to catagorize the hazards of a material used for its intended purpose. It does not cover novel uses such as using laundry blueing as a patina for cast bronze.

General thoughts. Artists use materials in novel ways. They use industrial chemicals in novel ways and they get so wrapped up in work that nothing else seems to matter. Artists often use large quantities of materials normally used in small amounts. They are often tempted to mix materials together. Materials not normally heated can cause dangerous fumes and vapors. Because of these special circumstances, artists often unneccessarily put themselves and others at risk. When using a material beyond its normal use, it becomes very important to consider all the risks. Often this requires knowledge beyond that contained in an MSDS sheet.

Also OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and other governmental safety organizations assume that a persons exposure to industrial chemicals is 8 hours per day. This means if you are working 16 hours a day, go home in dirty clothes or sleep in the studio your daily exposure could be several times OSHA's limits. Develop good habits, change clothes when you get home, and shower. Be extra careful with children. Do not expose them to hazardous chemicals through your clothing, and if you must have them in a studio remember that their bodies are very likely much less tolerant to chemical exposure, and the impacts can last a lifetime.

Physical Hazards

• Floors: Floors in the ceramics studio may be wet from cleaning, rainwater, leaks, and spills. Although the clean cement floor is not particularly slippery, clay on the surface can make it very slippery. Please be careful and wear sensible footware.
• Weight: Most ceramic materials are packaged in 50 pound quantities. If you cannot lift this weight safely, don't. Get help. Other materials may come in 100 pound sacks. These require help each time. Do not try to lift barrels of clay that are too heavy for you, or more than 3 or 4 gallons of glaze without help. Glaze and clay are denser than water, so what seems like a small amount can be quite heavy. Casting slip can weigh almost twice the amout per gallon as water.
• Eyes: It is important to be careful of your eyes, particularly if you wear contacts. If you splash clay or glaze in your eyes do not rub them. Go to the eye wash fountain and wash your eyes until they are all cleaned out. Never clean kiln shelves without good goggles.
• Keep your eyes at least three feet ( a full arms reach) from working kilns. Wind gusts and other changes in a kiln's air pressure can cause hot gases to come out of a kiln to an amazing distance. If you must stare into a kiln wear dark glasses. Using them every time you look in a kiln is a good practice but is considered unnecessary by some industrial hygenists for checking cones below 2400 degrees F.
• Kick wheels. Check your shoelaces and tie them securely before using a kickwheel and make sure you do not have clothing loose enough to become entangled in the wheels. Make sure the seat is not more than a few inches below the wheelhead.Wear durable covered shoes, not flimsy dress shoes or other insubstantial footwear. If you have or develop knee, back or other joint problems from using a kickwheel change to an electric. Some people with back trouble find trowing on anything but a standup wheel impossible.
• Wrists. If you have carpal tunnel syndrome or other wrist problems talk to Louis or your instructor specifically about avoiding or minimizing wedging of clay, or about alternative techniques. Discuss the probelm with your doctor. Wedging clay with bad technique can quickly bring on or make worse carpal tunnel syndrome. If you have it bad even wedging with good technique can make your carpal tunnel worse. So can centering stiff clay with your wrist bent back. Any signs of carpal tunnel syndrome including weakening of the hands, tingling of the fingers, or persitent or regular pain should be discussed with your physician. Your teacher should not be considered an expert.
• Hair. Tie your hair back to keep it out of machinary and away from flame.
• Approach hot kilns carefully. Keep the floor uncluttered near kilns. Wear nonfrizzy cotton or leather clothing when working with flames or kilns. Synthetic clothing often can catch fire and melt onto the skin.
• Mixing glazes requires safety glasses for protection from dust in the eyes. Any spraying of materials also requires such protection. ( as of 1/1/2010 Thuy Fleming, saftey officer)

Chemical Hazards.

• The chief hazardous ingredient in a ceramics studio is silica. Exposure to silica can cause silicosis, emphysema, and other lung disorders. It is also a hazard from sand boxes, cement powder and other sources of silica. It is not that silica is "poisonous", it is that daily exposure taken over years can cause enough damage to have an impact on your lungs. Sources of silica in the ceramics studio include clay and many glaze materials. Abrasive cutting or shaping old fire brick can create cristobalite dust. Cristobalite is a more hazardous from of silica. It forms over time at high temperatures from "normal" silica(quartz).
• Keeping the studio clean, using dry cleaning techniques and using appropriate protection when exposed to large amounts of dust will prevent silicosis and other problems associated with silica dust. The TAMUCC studio is clean enough to prevent routine exposure to hazardous amounts of silica. It is important to wear appropriate protection when mixing clay and glazes and doing anything dusty. Change out of dusty clothing after work.
• No ceramic materials should be inhaled. Inhalation is for air only. Dust must be avoided. Dusty processes such as sanding or scrapping dry clay should be avoided or done outside with respiratory protection. Everything that can should be cleaned using wet techniques. Washing the floor and tables with water, using wet cleanup techniques and prevention of dusts keeps our studio safe. Dry glaze ingredients can be much more hazardous but normally our exposure to them is much less. Respiratory protection must be worn when handling dry clay and glaze materials. There are no brooms to be used in ceramics.
• A few ingredients in our glazes are caustic. These include soda ash and wood ash. Wood ash can be particulary problematic because it contains lye and strong solutions or pastes of woodash can be caustic enough to quickly damage eyes and skin. Spraying of these materials without safety glasses is foolish.
• Often there are choices as to the ingredients you use. When possible choose the least hazardous materials. Your instructor can help with this.
• Chemicals can enter your body through inhalation (breathing them in), ingestion (eating or drinking), absoption and through the skin or injection. Injection could just be having them on a sharp implement and having an accident.
• Risk from absoption is unlikely with most ceramic studio materials. However water soluble colorants should be always be discussed with the instructor, and lusters should be kept from contact with the skin. Always wash your hands before leaving the studio especially after handling glazes.
• The risk of ingestion in our studio is reduced by not allowing eating or drinking in the studio, and not allowing drinkinking cups to be used for glaze containers. To prevent ingestion you should wash your hands before you eat or smoke, and shower and change your clothes when you get home. Some ingredients can be hazardous in very small quantities. Good hygeine is important.
• Materials can be inhaled in several forms. These are:
• Dusts, fine solid particles dispersed in the air. Dusts are prevented by having a clean shop, and cleaning with water. Brooms are not allowed in the studio. When mixing glazes or clay do not dump dry materials from a height that is any higher than needed. If you will be exposed to dust from clay or glaze mixing or some other process where appropriate respiratory protection.
• Mists are solutions or suspensions sprayed into the air. Spray glazing creates mists. Mists with water soluble materials can be expecially hazardous. At TAMUCC all glaze spraying requires an instructors permission each time.
• Vapors are gases given off by heating materials or by materials that can evaporate at room temperature. In ceramics they tend to come from kilns. Exposure is best prevented by having kilns outside or well vented. Overglazes and lusters can give off vapors before and during firing and should be used carefully. Lusters should be applied in a well ventillated space. At TAMUCC use of lusters must be discussed with your instructor. Overglazes and Lusters contain materials not usually associated with the ceramics studio and are often much more hazardous.
• Fumes are solids that have condensed from evaporated materials (The word is sometimes used for gases that have a different composition from their source material). Solid fumes tend to be very fine and because of this are sometimes more hazardous than their related dusts. Fumes can be given off from kilns. Exposure is prevented by venting kilns. Hot wax pans in our studio must be used outside and with permission of your instructor. As well as being fume hazards they are also fire hazards. Glazes otherwise safe can be hazardous because of fuming.
• All kilns should be used in well vented spaces. It is a bad practice to use kilns to warm up by standing close to them. You should minimize the time you spend near them because of the danger of fumes, vapors and carbon monoxide.
• All materials in the ceramics studio require permission before using. Beginning classes may use the beginning clay, wet glazes, and wet stains as directed by their instructor. Dry materials in the glaze pantry are to be used only by Intermediate, Advanced, and Graduate students with the permission of their instructor. Materials that are not marked with a black stripe require permission each time they are used by undergraduate students.

Radiation Hazards

Kilns should not be stared into without protective welding goggles. The hotter the kiln or area of the kiln you are looking at the more important this is. Also behind the bagwall of hot kilns is much hotter than the loading area of the chamber. There is disagreement among industril hygenists as to the need of protection for looking in 2350 degree kilns for short periods of time. The welding glasses used for acetylene welding are sufficient protection.

Fire Hazards

When working around kilns students should have long hair tied back. See the notes about clothing in the Physical Hazards section above. The floor near the kiln should be uncluttered. Flamable materials should be moved away. Solvents, propane containers must be far from the kiln. Ten feet is a minimum distance, twenty feet should be seen as better distance. Firing kilns in hot weather is stressful. You should make sure to drink plenty of water and not spend too much time out by the kilns.

Electrical Hazards

Wet floors and electrical devices do not mix. Electric wheel cords should be kept off the wet floor. Wheels should not be plugged in or unplugged if the floor or your hands are wet or damp. The electric kiln should be turned off at the breaker before being loaded if the floor is damp.

Environmental Concerns

It is a goal of the ceramics studio at TAMUCC to minimize the environmental impact of our operations to the greatest extent practical while also fulfilling the mission of the University. Generally this means minimizing waste, using appropriate waste procedures, using materials that have low environmental impact, and controlling energy use.

Unused glazes should be dried out and disposed of in the solid waste. They should never go down the drain.

Chemicals of special concern:

Copper Carbonate, Chrome Oxide, Barium Carbonate; Minimize any disposal of these materials in the sinks. If it is necessary to wash off Copper Carbonate wash it into a separate bucket and decant off the water. The copper carbonate residue can be reusued.

• A pound of clay creates a one pound hole in the earth.
• It consumes the petrochemicals to mine it.
• It consumes the petrochemicals to process it.
• It consumes the petrochemicals to transport it.
• On campus it requires ordering time in ceramics, and the building manager,
• It also requires bookeeping time.
• It requires transportation on campus sometimes using a forklift.
• It is paid for by student materials fees.
• Waste, in the trash or in our sinks requires time to collect and money to dispose of, including petrochemicals for transporation.
• By the time we are done wasting clay on the floor, or in the trash it has consume a great deal of time, money, and our environment. Please conserve.