Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/WikiMSDS

Description
ProjectDescription Alphateng (talk) 03:30, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Support
Please specify whether or not you would join the project.
 * 1) Alphateng (talk) 03:30, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Discussion
MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet. These MSDS are required by regulation from OSHA (Occupation Health and Safety Adminitration) for all products that

a) meet OSHA's definition of hazardous and

b) are "known to be present in the workplace in such a manner that employees may be exposed under normal conditions of use or in a foreseeable emergency".

Just a couple of examples of MSDS are,

i) GOJO skin and health products, see: http://www.gojo.com/canada/msds.aspx

ii) Cascade dishwashing detergent by P&G, see: http://www.pg.com/productsafety/search_results.php?searchtext=Cascade&category=msds&submit=Search

The goal of WikiMSDS is to create the single repository of information for as many MSDS of products as possible starting from products produced in United States and Canada. Eventually, the hope is to include MSDS of products from other country as well..as long as they are readily available from the respective manufacturer.

The benefit of having single repository of information is:

- avoid redundancy storage of digital MSDS (i.e. Manufacturer and Consumer refers to WikiMSDS for digital copy and no need to store in their own server)

- faster / quick reference (digital, hence searchable by computer) whenever user needs to find MSDS. Example of users are students in University and employee in manufacturing plant.

MSDS are usually readily available for download, although some are given upon request by email. Hence, the need for crew of Wikipedians to hunt and collect these MSDS from manufacturers.

The benefit to Wikipedia and Wikipedians is that, because this effort benefits Manufacturers/Corporations/Universities by helping them save cost from maintaining digital storage of MSDS in their server, in return Wikipedia has solid motive to ask for donations from them.

The donations from them could be partial to the cost of maintaining the server, but in sum/collection of lots of manufacturers in United Stated and Canada -or globally-, this would at least breakeven. Do not underestimate the extend of generosity. Also, this could be Wikipedia's healthy revenue stream because every 3 years, manufacturers/universities/corporations are required to update/revised their MSDS database as mandated by OSHA, hence it's a long-term commitment, not just one-time storage / donation.

To start, I have collected hundreds of MSDS on my own. I would like to get an idea how many Wikipedians are interested to join? or if you have suggestions/comments/concerns/questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

The typical size of a digital MSDS (PDF file) is about 1MB.