The last page of any safety data sheet (SDS) always contains legalese that, in short, states that users of the product may not rely on the information in the SDS alone to make decisions. If there’s no occupational exposure limit (OEL) listed for a chemical ingredient or byproduct in a SDS, you can conduct an online search for the chemical by CAS number and include the qualifier DNEL — derived no effect levels. CAS is required on an SDS, DNEL is not.

The CAS RegistrySM contains more than 139 million unique organic and inorganic chemicals. OSHA contends that there are about 880,000 of these CAS chemicals that are considered hazardous and used at U.S. workplaces1.