 If you've ever used resin, this is info you can't live without, literally. Hi internet friends, it's Rebecca from Art Resin with a PSA for anyone who has ever worked with epoxy resin or is thinking about using it in the future. Here it is, the honest truth. Most epoxy resins are really bad for you. It's scary. Do you actually know if the resin you're using can cause cancer, respiratory distress, reproductive harm? Do you know for sure if it's corrosive or not? So many resins are. How can you tell which is safe and which is dangerous and just how dangerous? The SDS holds the key. It's the one document that gives an honest expose into the chemical you're working with. It's kind of like, you know, when you get a new prescription and it comes with that little leaflet that describes what the drug is, how to take it, what ingredients are in it, and what can go wrong if you take too much of it. And SDS is like that, but for the chemical that you're working with. In this video, I'm going to teach you how to be a smart resin consumer. I'm going to teach you how to interpret an SDS, also called a safety data sheet, and how to spot the red flags. Ultimately, I want you to know that not all resin brands are created equal. And as you might expect, you get what you pay for. So let's get started. And not to be dramatic, but this can save your life. First off, what is an SDS and what is it for? An SDS, which used to be called an MSDS, is an internationally standardized document that every chemical must have to make consumers aware of what the product is all about, how it performs, and what risks may be associated with it. It exists to educate people and keep them safe. The SDS is templated so that all the safety information is organized the same way for every product. The onus is on the business that sells the chemical to write the SDS and provide accurate information. So let's look at an SDS section by section and we'll see what we notice and what you can't afford to not be aware of. I'll just do a quick overview at first and then I'll kind of come back and hit some of the more important sections in detail. So section one of 16 is identification. What is this product called? Where is it made? Easy enough. And as you can see, this is the art resin SDS we're looking at right now. It's available at art resin dot com slash SDS. And by the way, if you want an SDS from any other company, you can ask them for it and they have to provide it to you. Section two, and we're right into it. Hazards identification. Here's where you'll find standardized language and pictograms to identify any potential health risk. This section is so important they put it right after the product's name and manufacturer. I'm coming back to this section in a bit. Section three gives information on ingredients. What is this product composed of? In many cases, chemicals have a generic cast number or a chemical abstract service number assigned to them to more easily identify and distinguish them from one another. And you'll see ours here. Section four is first aid. What do you do if this is inhaled and gested if it's on your skin or if it's in your eyes? Section five, what do you do if this product lives on fire? Section six, what do you do if this product spills? Section seven, how do you handle and store this product? Section eight, PPE. We all know by now there's a wide range of personal protective equipment available for the different levels of risk. So what is the PPE that's required for this product? You'll find that out in this section and I'm coming back to this section in a bit. Section nine, what does this product look like? What are its physical properties? Section 10, is this product stable or reactive? Section 11, is this product toxic? If so, how and to which part of the body? Section 12, offers some info as to how this product may affect ecology. Section 13, tells you how to dispose of this product properly. Section 14, gives you some transporting considerations. Section 15 talks about regulatory information and section 16, it just offers a space to mention anything that wasn't already covered. So lots of information for sure, but what you really want to hone in on for your average everyday normal use are sections two, eight and eleven. So the hazards, the PPE and the toxicity. And these are the sections that spell out in no uncertain terms what this chemical is capable of in terms of harming you and what you need to do to protect yourself given that chemical composition. If a resident produces toxic gins and VSCs, I would want to know so that I can at least suit up in some big industrial respirator in my kids and my cat and my dog. And if it's going to give me cancer or melt my skin off or poison me, I would want to know so that I can throw it out. So Q section two once again, the hazard section. If this product is carcinogenic or for causes respiratory distress or if there's anything that can happen to you from using this product, this is where it has to be listed. And the language you'll find here is all standardized from OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Now, one thing to note is that every epoxy resin is classified as an irritant. That means that it can irritate your skin if it gets on your skin, which is why you always have to wear protective gloves when you're working with any brand of resin. So any product classified as an irritant carries the signal word warning or caution and it must show this pictogram. It's an exclamation in a red diamond. And then you have statements that go along with that and the business is responsible for recording all the applicable statements from a huge list of possibilities. And it's their liability on the line. So for art resin, we have statements like keep out of reach of children, wear protective gloves, if skin irritation and rash occurs, get medical attention, all things that make sense with the irritant classification. But when I look at other resin SDSs, I see a lot of other pictograms. I see skull and crossbones, corrosion, talp hazard, flammable, harmful to the environment. I see those pictograms a lot in other resins. And what concerns me is I see them in the SDS, but nowhere on the label as required. So it appears that other manufacturers are hiding the toxicity of their product. And I see hazard statements such as causes serious eye damage, suspected of damaging fertility in the unborn child, very toxic. In no uncertain terms, the SDS lets you know what you're dealing with and why you may want to choose something that doesn't make you fearful for your safety and well-being. Here's the National Fire Protection Association rating and the Hazardous Material Identification System rating. These diamond shaped pictograms follow a chemical rating system on a scale of 0 to 4 to show at a glance how flammable and hazardous the product is respectively. Here's a quick overview of these safety rating systems. A rating of 0 indicates a low hazard, whereas a 4 would indicate high hazard. They're sometimes color coded, blue for health hazard, red for flammability, yellow or orange for physical hazard or chemical reactivity, and white for personal protection or another special hazard. As a reference, here's art resins, diamond pictograms, and here are examples of other resin brands. Section 8 once again talks about the protective equipment that you need based on the hazards identified in Section 2. So, are we putting on just a pair of disposable gloves, like in the case of art resin? Or are we sitting up in a hazmat suit, donning a full-on gas mask, and bespectling ourselves with goggles? You may be surprised that with a lot of these resins, the latter is the norm. The big question you might have at this point is, why are resins so different? Why do some resins have the capacity to destroy your health or even kill you? And other resins are totally safe to use. The real differentiator in resins is filler. The resins with deleterious effects almost always have filler in them to drive down the cost, but that also makes the product toxic. Filler is almost always a solvent, which doesn't bond in the chemical reaction of the epoxy resin, and that produces fumes and VOCs. There are so many fillers that leach out over time, which can never be used for food contact or skin contact. And for the more, anything with filler, which is almost every resin, to be honest, is going to have respiratory warnings in Section 2 and 8. So unless you're donning one of these, you and the kids, and the cat, and the dog, you're doing damage. Sometimes irreversible damage. I'm here to tell you that art resin contains no solvents. There is no filler in our product that can cause these unwanted toxic effects. So everything bonds together chemically, and that means no VOCs, no fumes, no respiratory distress. Legitimately. And to back that up, we have the certifications. They're posted on our website. The bottom line is the resin you're using shouldn't hurt you. And to be honest, it costs a lot to produce a product like ours. But if you're uncompromising in quality and safety, then things cost more. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. You can have a triple-A wagyu steak for dinner, or you could have cat food. And one of these will make you very sick. And if there's anything that we've learned in recent history, being sick sucks. So while I certainly believe that art resin's the best, and I'd love to convince you of that too, what I really want you to be aware of is what it is that you're purchasing, whatever it is, so that you know at a bare minimum what you're dealing with. Ask for the SDS of every resin you're working with. Look for the pictograms, look for the hazard statements, and put on your PPE accordingly. So that's all. I hope you found this video insightful. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave those in the comments. I'll get back to you. And thank you for watching, and stay safe.