B.C. Case Shows MSDS Perils

摘要

Despite substantial due diligence efforts, an Imperial Oil refinery in British Columbia was convicted on three charges of polluting Burrard Inlet. The case illustrates the danger to companies of relying too heavily on what is and isn't contained in Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). The refinery was permitted to discharge storm-water runoff into the inlet provided that it passed a toxicity test at prescribed intervals. Imperial tested the runoff more frequently than required. When two of these extra tests showed that it had become toxic to fish, Imperial investigated immediately and discovered the problem to be a slow leak of manganese gasoline additive MMT.