MSDS Sheet for Wood Pellets...Interesting Read

Phoenix Hatchling · Oct 17, 2014

Not sure if this is industry, but when checking the website of my fav pellets, they had a link to an MSDS sheet for their product. I never would have thought that there would be a need for this since they are, well, wood. It appears that there is very specific guidelines allowed for the off gassing, and specific storage conditions should be met. It goes further to list allowable limits dependant on type of wood, and their respective health threats.
I applaud them for publishing this if it is not required, and perhaps Canada sets more stringent regulation on the pellet production. Here's the link for those interested and with time to kill:

http://lcsm.putonium.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/LCSM-Wood-Pellet-MSDS.pdf

tjnamtiw · Oct 17, 2014

Wow! Those of you who store in your basements better order a Scott air pack! Post 'Controlled Space Hazard Warning' signs too. You can't enter without the air pack or ventilating and testing for CO and oxygen, just like entering a tank. That's some pretty scary crap!

Having made some deer calls out of old cedar, I can attest to the severe itching warnings if any of that is in there! I itched for a month from the fine dust during sanding.

Phoenix Hatchling · Oct 17, 2014

tjnamtiw said:
Wow! Those of you who store in your basements better order a Scott air pack! Post 'Controlled Space Hazard Warning' signs too. You can't enter without the air pack or ventilating and testing for CO and oxygen, just like entering a tank. That's some pretty scary crap!

Having made some deer calls out of old cedar, I can attest to the severe itching warnings if any of that is in there! I itched for a month from the fine dust during sanding.

Tell me about it!! And yes the cedar is in there as well.

Twinturbo6.4 · Oct 17, 2014

Interesting, I will bring home a 4 gas meter from work and check the basement. I think it will be fine though, the furnace will be running for hot water and we have a forced air exhaust since we don't have a masonry chimney.

john193 · Oct 17, 2014

Thanks for sharing. Are you also able to acquire the msds for bagged pellets. The msds notes one exists. I would be curious to compare this (bulk) to the bagged as I keep about 1.5 tons in my unfinished basement.

daffonce · Oct 17, 2014

home exchange rates are considered to be 4 per hour. so 96 per day. if you take the example of 1 excahnge per day you get a concentration of 280 ppm. if your house does 1 exchange per hour and is chock full of pellets you drop the concentration down to about 10 ppm (as the air exchange rate is 24 times that of 1 per day). if you take into account you are doing at least 1 per hour and your house isn't full of pellets it is much less. sealed containers are tricky, and the containers are full of pellets and no open air space. your 6 tons in the basement take up what about 2% of the open space. and your basement isn't sealed you get plenty of air exchanges per day. CO isn't a problem, never heard my CO alarm going off with 6 tons in the basement.

Lake Girl · Oct 17, 2014

Regulations at sawmills likely have become more strict - two explosions that resulted in deaths in BC. Since the pellet production facilities are likely located at the same location as the sawmill, likely have to have higher precaution levels.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ll-ball-of-flame-kills-1-injures-24-1.1155827
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/2-missing-after-b-c-mill-explosion-1.1233269

As to off-gassing in confined spaces, it is not very much different than grain silos. Most if not all of the materials in your house off-gas... California passed legislation on binders used in furniture (will notice more kitchen cabinets, etc. are formaldehyde free).
http://www.treehugger.com/green-hom...our-home-and-what-you-should-do-about-it.html

I have to chuckle on the treehugger article as it seems to recommend old drafty homes!

Phoenix Hatchling · Oct 17, 2014

daffonce said:
home exchange rates are considered to be 4 per hour. so 96 per day. if you take the example of 1 excahnge per day you get a concentration of 280 ppm. if your house does 1 exchange per hour and is chock full of pellets you drop the concentration down to about 10 ppm (as the air exchange rate is 24 times that of 1 per day). if you take into account you are doing at least 1 per hour and your house isn't full of pellets it is much less. sealed containers are tricky, and the containers are full of pellets and no open air space. your 6 tons in the basement take up what about 2% of the open space. and your basement isn't sealed you get plenty of air exchanges per day. CO isn't a problem, never heard my CO alarm going off with 6 tons in the basement.

I realize that even with a relatively tightly sealed room or garage, you are going to ample circulation to prevent unsafe levels. But just the fact that there is a threat is not something I would have even considered. It gives me new insight to whenever I throw the garage door open to grab some baggies, and I'm smacked by the beautiful whiff of spruce.

tjnamtiw · Oct 17, 2014

I think it's really more of a fine example of government control gone to the dogs! The EPA had a water run-off testing protocol that we had to do once a year to prove we were not polluting the aquifier. The instructions were written in such a way that you had to stand out in a long-term thunderstorm and wait for a sufficient flow rate to go down this swale before you could collect a series of samples. You then put various chemicals in each batch and overnited this kit to some lab. Well, in all the years I was there we either never had a consistent rainfall to qualify or it was lightening so badly that there was no way I was going to stand out in the middle of a field to collect anything for some idiot in the EPA. Never submitted a sample and never heard anything in 20 years. Some slob sat behind a desk collected a 6 figure salary being in charge of a non-functional bureaucracy.

tjnamtiw · Oct 17, 2014

Lake Girl said:
Regulations at sawmills likely have become more strict - two explosions that resulted in deaths in BC. Since the pellet production facilities are likely located at the same location as the sawmill, likely have to have higher precaution levels.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ll-ball-of-flame-kills-1-injures-24-1.1155827
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/2-missing-after-b-c-mill-explosion-1.1233269

As to off-gassing in confined spaces, it is not very much different than grain silos. Most if not all of the materials in your house off-gas... California passed legislation on binders used in furniture (will notice more kitchen cabinets, etc. are formaldehyde free).
http://www.treehugger.com/green-hom...our-home-and-what-you-should-do-about-it.html

I have to chuckle on the treehugger article as it seems to recommend old drafty homes!

Yes, they've tightened up the homes so much that they have actually become hazardous places because of all the fumes given off by the furniture, paint, etc! Some need to have air exchange systems that preheat the incoming air.
The haze you get on the inside of your windshield is actually the nasty byproducts cooking off of your vinyl seats and dashboard in the heat.

BrotherBart · Oct 17, 2014

Nothing at all wrong with MSDS. Good to know what is in the crap we buy/live with.

Bridgeman · Oct 18, 2014

MSDS are example of a government program that works. As manager of a warehouse that stores chemicals used in bridge preservation, I use Material Safety Data Sheets to keep my employees and the public safe. Government bashing seems to be very popular unless you need one of us to show up and pull you out of a fire or fix your bridges so you don't fall to your death in a bridge failure. Amazingly lots of the bashers are on a government pension or medical program. We are not all slobs sitting behind a desk collecting a six figure salary. Lots us risk our lives every day so you can live your life as safe and ungrateful citizens. The government workers at the Portsmouth Shipyard that worked on that boat yours deserve gratitude and respect for keeping you and all of us safe.

Stevekng · Oct 18, 2014

tjnamtiw said:
I think it's really more of a fine example of government ome idiot in the EPA. Never submitted a sample and never heard anything in 20 years. Some slob sat behind a desk collected a 6 figure salary being in charge of a non-functional bureaucracy.

Phoenix Hatchling said:
Not sure if this is industry, but when checking the website of my fav pellets, they had a link to an MSDS sheet for their product. I never would have thought that there would be a need for this since they are, well, wood. It appears that there is very specific guidelines allowed for the off gassing

Phoenix Hatchling said:
Not sure if this is industry, but when checking the website of my fav pellets, they had a link to an MSDS sheet for their product. I never would have thought that there would be a need for this since they are, well, wood. It appears that there is very specific guidelines allowed for the off gassing, and specific storage conditions should be met. It goes further to list allowable limits dependant on type of wood, and their respective health threats.
I applaud them for publishing this if it is not required, and perhaps Canada sets more stringent regulation on the pellet production. Here's the link for those interested and with time to kill:

Here I was getting ready to start my stove up this morning.' Ain't afraid of no dust.

http://lcsm.putonium.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/LCSM-Wood-Pellet-MSDS.pdf

tjnamtiw · Oct 18, 2014

Bridgeman said:
MSDS are example of a government program that works. As manager of a warehouse that stores chemicals used in bridge preservation, I use Material Safety Data Sheets to keep my employees and the public safe. Government bashing seems to be very popular unless you need one of us to show up and pull you out of a fire or fix your bridges so you don't fall to your death in a bridge failure. Amazingly lots of the bashers are on a government pension or medical program. We are not all slobs sitting behind a desk collecting a six figure salary. Lots us risk our lives every day so you can live your life as safe and ungrateful citizens. The government workers at the Portsmouth Shipyard that worked on that boat yours deserve gratitude and respect for keeping you and all of us safe.

Yes, my BOAT, built in Groton, CT., served me well and is an example of how the Rickover run nuclear program performed excellently while private unionized construction of nuke plants was a dismal failure. HOWEVER, in our refit from Polaris to Poseidon missiles in Bremerton, it was found that there were faulty welds 1/3 of the way around one section of the hull in the missile compartment! In addition, the forward torpedo tube bulkhead only had first pass welds on a portion of it! Finally, our huge hovering ball valve, when removed, was found to no longer have holes in the hull for the bolts to go through. Most of the holes had rusted away probably because of galvanic corrosion and only small 'scallops' were left for the washers to grab hold of. The boat went on to serve many more years, thankfully. My nephews boat, Tennessee, was a constant source of problems, I was told and he was very glad to get off of it.
Sorry if I showed disrespect for government workers, but most of the disrespect has been well earned these last six years.

I don't know how you risked your life for me but I certainly risked mine for you.
I did use MSDS' in my civilian career and often found them useful. I just wish someone had cared back when I washed ink off of my hands with toluene and xylene!

bags · Oct 19, 2014

Lake Girl said:
Regulations at sawmills likely have become more strict - two explosions that resulted in deaths in BC. Since the pellet production facilities are likely located at the same location as the sawmill, likely have to have higher precaution levels.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ll-ball-of-flame-kills-1-injures-24-1.1155827
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/2-missing-after-b-c-mill-explosion-1.1233269

As to off-gassing in confined spaces, it is not very much different than grain silos. Most if not all of the materials in your house off-gas... California passed legislation on binders used in furniture (will notice more kitchen cabinets, etc. are formaldehyde free).
http://www.treehugger.com/green-hom...our-home-and-what-you-should-do-about-it.html

I have to chuckle on the treehugger article as it seems to recommend old drafty homes!

At the same time they ask for tighter houses to con-swerve energy. Huh? Stay tuned...... the rules shall change again.

Stevekng · Oct 19, 2014

tjnamtiw said:
Yes, my BOAT, built in Groton, CT., served me well and is an example of how the Rickover run nuclear program performed excellently while private unionized construction of nuke plants was a dismal failure. HOWEVER, in our refit from Polaris to Poseidon missiles in Bremerton, it was found that there were faulty welds 1/3 of the way around one section of the hull in the missile compartment! In addition, the forward torpedo tube bulkhead only had first pass welds on a portion of it! Finally, our huge hovering ball valve, when removed, was found to no longer have holes in the hull for the bolts to go through. Most of the holes had rusted away probably because of galvanic corrosion and only small 'scallops' were left for the washers to grab hold of. The boat went on to serve many more years, thankfully. My nephews boat, Tennessee, was a constant source of problems, I was told and he was very glad to get off of it.
Sorry if I showed disrespect for government workers, but most of the disrespect has been well earned these last six years. I don't know how you risked your life for me but I certainly risked mine for you.
I did use MSDS' in my civilian career and often found them useful. I just wish someone had cared back when I washed ink off of my hands with toluene and xylene!

I have done DOD and FAA work as a union member for many (over 30) years. If you are aware of the Government's documentation that is required for anything that carries people in the air, on or under the water, and anything that shoots a bullet or a missile, then you would realize that if there is a failure, it's in the engineering , Government inspection of the work performed, or maintenance by the members of the crew or civilian workers.

I could list the documentation that's required for every bolt or even the paint that's used but the paperwork would make an MSDS sheet look like a 1st grader's spelling assignment. And that doesn't even account for x ray's and certified vendors' records

SwineFlue · Oct 19, 2014

john193 said:
Thanks for sharing. Are you also able to acquire the msds for bagged pellets. The msds notes one exists. I would be curious to compare this (bulk) to the bagged as I keep about 1.5 tons in my unfinished basement.

http://www.pellet.org/images/2009-05-05_MSDS_Bagged_Pellets.pdf

Don't worry about CO from your 1.5 tons... the examples in the Bulk MSDS are for an air-tight container holding 1000 metric tons (2.2 million pounds) of pellets.

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MSDS Sheet for Wood Pellets...Interesting Read

Phoenix Hatchling

Minister of Fire

tjnamtiw

Minister of Fire

Phoenix Hatchling

Minister of Fire

Twinturbo6.4

Member

john193

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daffonce

Member

Lake Girl

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Phoenix Hatchling

Minister of Fire

tjnamtiw

Minister of Fire

tjnamtiw

Minister of Fire

BrotherBart

Modesterator

Bridgeman

Burning Hunk

Stevekng

Feeling the Heat

tjnamtiw

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bags

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Stevekng

Feeling the Heat

SwineFlue

Minister of Fire

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