Labeling at the bench

What the original carries

A shipped container of a hazardous chemical carries a product identifier, a signal word, hazard statements, pictograms, precautionary statements and the responsible party, and a safety data sheet accompanies it in sixteen sections. All of that describes the contents to somebody who did not open it.

What a decanted bottle carries

Whatever you wrote on it. An unlabeled working bottle on a bench is the single most common finding in any laboratory inspection, and it is the one that matters most in an emergency, when somebody who did not fill it has to know what it is.

Prepared solutions need it too

A buffer you made is not a purchased chemical and it still contains hazardous components. Identity, concentration, who made it and when is the practical minimum, and the date matters because solutions age.

Keep the data sheets reachable

Accessible to employees during their work shifts is the requirement, and reachable in practice means somebody can find the right one in a minute rather than knowing it exists somewhere. A folder nobody can locate fails the purpose rather than the letter.

Sample containers and reagent containers are different problems

A sample needs an identity so the result can be attributed. A reagent needs a hazard warning so somebody handling it is safe. The same bench holds both and they are labeled for different reasons.

Write it when you fill it

Not afterwards. The unlabeled bottle is almost always one somebody meant to label in a moment, and the moment is where the gap lives.

Secondary containers that leave your hands need full labeling

A working bottle you fill and use yourself within a shift is treated differently from one that goes on a shelf or passes to somebody else. Once it outlives your immediate use, it needs the identity and the hazard on it.

References