What are Risk Phrases and Safety Phrases?

When you are looking at your Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) usually towards the end of the document, you will find the risk phrases and the safety phrases. The risk phrases and safety phrases are part of the European Union Directive but are used internationally.

This is what they may look like on your MSDS:

These R-phrases, as they are sometimes called, give specific information regarding any risk with a substance. There is a long list of R-phrases and they cover risks attributed according to the nature of a cleaning chemical in the form it is sold in. This means that it is not measured by its individual components nor is it rated in the form it is used in i.e. diluted.

Safety Phrases, or S-phrases, give the user safety advice for using the cleaning. These are slightly different to risk phrases as they offer specific advice for handling cleaning products. A risk phrase will say irritating to skin and a safety phrase will say wear gloves.

Even if a cleaning product is very safe it may still carry risk and safety phrases. One safety phrase that should be on almost all cleaning products is S2 – Keep out of reach of children.

Risk phrases and safety phrases will give you the knowledge you need to handle you cleaning products with safety first. Blendwell Chemicals will be happy to supply you with a MSDS for each cleaning product that you buy from us. Blendwell Chemicals manufactures all their cleaning products in Johannesburg, South Africa. We are your best local cleaning products wholesaler.

What are Hazard Symbols and what do they mean?

When you receive a MSDS from Blendwell Chemicals you can expect towards the end of the document to see a small diagram in the hazard symbol section. This hazard symbol will give you information regarding how safe or dangerous the cleaning product could be to the user and the environment. This hazard symbol is created based on the information on the finished product. Although the cleaning chemical may contain hazardous components, the finished product may not necessarily carry the same hazard warning.

Some products are safe and they will not need to carry a hazard symbol.

If a cleaning product is classified as an irritant it will mean that this cleaning chemical can cause irritation if the product comes into contact with skin, eyes, hands and lungs. The cleaning product does not have to be an irritant on all areas but simply on one of them in a significant way.

Another hazard symbol that looks almost the same is for harmful products. You will notice that the little “I” in the corner of the irritant hazard symbol is missing. The harmful hazard symbol can refer to the cleaning chemical being harmful to the environment or it being harmful to people either by ingestion or contact.

The Corrosive hazard symbol will appear for a cleaning chemical that will cause burns and serious damage to the skin, lungs or eyes. If this hazard symbol appears on your cleaning product, please handle with care. It will be very important that you use safety gear when handling this product. It is always important to use safety gear but with this hazard symbol on your cleaning product, you could cause permanent damage if you allow any carelessness when handling this product.

The Toxic hazard symbol is one that is used for cleaning products that are poisonous when ingested, breathed in or with direct contact. It can also refer to a cleaning product that is known to cause cancer or other illnesses. This product must be handled with the utmost care.

The Environmental Hazard is for a chemical that will do serious damage to the environment including water. This cleaning product will require careful disposal.

Flammable cleaning products will carry this hazard symbol. These cleaning products will require special storage in a proper flame resistant cupboard or room.

Blendwell Chemicals will supply you with the information you need to handle your cleaning products safely. For more information on the cleaning products available from Blendwell Chemicals, please visit www.blendwell.co.za. Blendwell Chemicals is the best local cleaning chemical manufacturer and wholesaler in Johannesburg. We are your partner in cleaning.

2 Documents to Explain your Cleaning Products

Blendwell Chemicals supplies two documents for every cleaning product that we manufacture. These two documents will help you with all the information you may need about our cleaning chemicals, how to use them and how to stay safe with them. The documents can be quite technical so if you need some help - just ask.

The Data Sheet includes a description of the cleaning product, how to use it, dilutions, its basic chemical stats and safety recommendations. This document is usually about one page long and is great for a quick overview of the cleaning product you are interested in. You should be able to find all the most important facts about your cleaning product on this page.

The Material Safety Data Sheet is also known as a MSDS. This document is much more indepth document than the data sheet. The MSDS will provide you with information regarding the hazardous components that make up your cleaning chemical. These hazardous components are a legal requirement so that users are aware of the potential risks of that particular product. This doesn’t mean however that because these raw materials are used in your cleaning product that it must be incredibly harmful. Hazardous raw materials can be diluted so much in formulation that they are no longer hazardous or that can also be neutralized in formulation. You will find information on the environmental impacts of the cleaning product and full safety information too. The safety information will cover what safety equipment you may need and what to do if there is a significant spill of the cleaning product. The MSDS will cover how this product will react in a fire and the storage requirements. First aid advice and transport codes are also available here. There will a risk and safety analysis at the end of the document that will include the hazard listing of the finished product,

If you buy any of our cleaning products we are happy to supply you with either of these documents so that you know more about the cleaning chemicals you are using. Blendwell Chemicals is your partner in cleaning and is the best manufacturer of cleaning products in the Midrand area.

3 Steps to Cleaning

No matter what you are cleaning there are some basic steps to start with. These steps are simple questions you can ask yourself before you get started.

The first question is: Is the dirt you want to clean oil based or other? If you’re cleaning oil, you will need specific cleaning products to lift the oil from the surface.

The second question is: Is the surface to be cleaned hard or porous? Porous surfaces will be able to absorb some of the cleaning product which could damage the surface or item being cleaned. It is most likely that you will need to rinse the surface with clean water after cleaning. What equipment you use will also need to be considered.

The third step is to calculate what actions should follow. This will include things like what cleaning product should you use and at what dilution ratio. Will you need a cleaning product that foams or one that specifically does not foam? What temperature should your cleaning products be and what equipment will you need? How will you be cleaning (wiping, scrubbing, mopping) and how much time will you need?

 For more information on cleaning and cleaning products, please visit www.blendwell.co.za. We are your best local cleaning chemical manufacturer in the Midrand area.

4 Key Elements of Cleaning Faster and Easier

No matter what you’re going to clean you will need to know a little bit about how to clean. Sure, you may not need to know all the rules for cleaning to get the job done but knowing and applying the rules will help save you time, effort and money too.

Anything that requires cleaning needs more than one element to be cleaned. Certain items will require all four elements to be considered and adjusted.

THERMAL ENERGY means that heat may be required for cleaning to be optimum. Some items, often where they are greasy, will need heat to support cleaning. Think of cleaning and oven or grill.

CHEMICAL ENERGY is the actual cleaning chemical used to clean. Using the right cleaning product at the right dilution will definitely make cleaning easier. More is not always better. In fact, there are some cleaning products, like dishwashing liquid, where using more cleaning chemical makes it harder to get your items clean.

MECHINICAL ENERGY is the energy that you or a machine uses to clean. This is the actual wiping motion when you clean a countertop or scrubbing when cleaning the paving bricks outside.

The final element is time. Some cleaning requires extended contact time so you may apply the cleaners and then wait for 20 minutes before starting to clean (this would allow for chemical energy to do the hard work for you). But all cleaning requires time even if it is only a couple of seconds contact time.

The equation of cleaning is:

CLEANING = (CHEMICAL ENERGY + MECHANICAL ENERGY + THERMAL ENERGY) X TIME

For more information on cleaning please visit www.blendwell.co.za. Blendwell Chemicals is a manufacturer of cleaning products in Johannesburg South Africa. We are the best local wholesaler of cleaning products.

Now you are ready to get going with cleaning your car

Start with checking the headlining. Hopefully all is in order here. A quick vacuum will not go amiss. If there are dirty patches you should use a product like Blendwell Chemicals Carpet Shampoo. Here you’ll use the foam to clean any dirty patches so that the area is not left wet.

Then clean the fascia and dashboard.  It’s usually easier to have a cleaning product like Blendwell Chemicals Wac GP Cleaner. This all-purpose cleaner is ideally diluted into a spray bottle and then sprayed onto all the areas to be cleaned and wiped with a clean cloth. When I last cleaned my car, I cleaned with diluted Eco-Lyte DG Cleaner. It was brilliant on the milkshake that had spilt the day before and I had not had a chance to clean up. Because it had been so hot the mess had dried up. I sprayed the green cleaner and a quick wipe later and it was all cleaned up. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I had imagined. Here are my before and after photo’s:

After cleaning the fascia and dashboard, you can move onto Silicone Cleaner to shine up these plastic surfaces. Please be careful not to over use a silicon product on the steering wheel or gear lever as you don’t want these areas to be slippery.

Cleaning the seats of your car will often require some spot cleaning. I recommend that you first do some vacuuming of the seats before you apply any cleaners to the seats. Whatever you happen to be cleaning, a great tip to follow is always clean dry before wet. Once the dust and dirt has been lifted by the vacuum, you can move onto cleaning with cleaning chemicals. For fabric seats, you could use the Carpet Shampoo if you are planning to clean the whole seat or you can opt for Wac GP Cleaner if there are just one or two spots that need cleaning.  The Carpets can be cleaned in the same way.

If your car has leather seats, you will want to use Blendwell Chemicals Leather Cleaner and Leather Polish. These two cleaning products are designed to work together to bring out the best of your leather seats.

For more information on cleaning your car, please visit www.blendwell.co.za/Car_Cleaning. Blendwell Chemicals manufactures all their cleaning products in Johannesburg, South Africa. We are your best local wholesaler of cleaning products

Delphis Eco cleans up at Wandsworth Business Awards

The Wandsworth Business Awards were last week and Delphis Eco cleaned up!

Delphis Eco won the Green Business Award and was also commended for their Commitment to the Community.

Mark Jankovitz (founder of Delphis Eco) received Highly Commended as Entrepreneur of the Year.

Well done Delphis Eco!

Dates to diarise

We're already firmly into November and we have year end fast approaching. Please be aware if our dates for shutdown this year and get all your orders in on time.

Blendwell Distributors

Blendwell is proud to announce the distributor agreements that we have entered into with Tharochem and Downstream Trading. We now supply Tharochem exclusively in Sasolburg. Downstream Trading are exclusively supplied by Blendwell Chemicals in Rustenburg.

If anyone is looking for Blendwell cleaning products in Rustenburg you can contact Downstream Trading at 014-596-7170, visit their website at www.streamtrading.co.za  or you could email them at downstream@telkomsa.net.

Downstream Tradings new premises look fantastic. Here are some pictures:

To contact Tharochem in Sasolburg you can phone them on 016-976-7001, visit their website at www.tharochem.co.za or email them at klippies@tharochem.co.za

If you would like to find out more about becoming an official Blendwell Chemicals distributor please contact Judy at 011-805-9940. Please note: distributor agreements are only entered into if particular criteria are reached and we will not be able to enter into any distributor agreements for companies based in Gauteng.

November becomes MOVEMBER.

Register on the movember website to support this great cause!