Adventures in Material Safety Data Sheets

The university semester has started, I'm a chemistry student, and that means one thing: risk assessments. So many risk assessments. Made worse by the fact that as a third year, our labs are bit more 'freeform'-- meaning that I have to do pretty much all the risk assessments for each class at once. >:|

Which means that I have been making metaphorical nests in material safety data sheets (aka the good ol' MSDS). And those things are an unintentional source of hilarity. You see, they have to warn you about the dangers of a chemical in any form, amount, or use you can conceivably think of. (I have heard rumours of MSDSes that distinguish between the dangers of a powdered form of something and solution of it when the hazardousness of each is very different, but I haven't seen that kind.) They also have a guiding philosophy of 'better safe and feeling a little silly than covered in chemical burns.' This can cause some, let's say, weirdness.

• According to the MSDS, you should only use table salt in well ventilated area, preferably a fume hood, and while wearing eye protection. Also it's toxic. (It's toxic in the sense that any powder you can breathe in is toxic because it can give you a respiratory infection. Also it's not great to get in your eyes? Not sure it necessarily calls for eye protection, but again, guiding philosophy.)
• Have you ever washed an aluminum can with water so you could recycle it? According to the MSDS, you shouldn't do that: you might cause an explosion! (... if you mix water with powdered aluminium. But the MSDS doesn't make that distinction.)
• And the prize for 'bizarrest thing I've seen in an MSDS' goes to these two hazard warnings, which occurred in this order: '-may cause respiratory tract irritation -fatal if inhaled' (♫ one of these things implies the other, one of these things does not belong ♫ Joking aside, that warning does kind of make sense in the sense that that chemical will kill if you, like, walk into a cloud of it, while breathing in a tiny amount will suck but not kill you. Considering that I have done that and I am not posting this from the grave. ..that makes the whole situation sound more concerning, 'breathing in some of it' was only the second most dangerous thing about that situation, and the first most dangerous was pretty easily resolved.)