How to Handle Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace

Safety is important, especially when your business focuses on chemicals in any manner. Bell Chem is more than your standard chemical supplier; they back up these ideas with credentials: Bell Chem is certified OSHA compliant and has been audited by a third party to prove it meets or exceeds industry standards on GMP and HACCP requirements. In other words, Bell Chem backs up its words with safety practices. 

Training

Each member of your team must be properly trained before utilizing any chemical. This might mean hiring a chemical hygiene team or simply having one-on-one training for each new employee. Hazardous chemicals require specialized training for any individual handling or using the chemical.

Any method you choose should also include a safety standard operating procedure researched by your safety team and agreed upon by the managers responsible for employees handling chemicals. Be sure training is current and includes hands-on participation in both formal and non-formal testing environments. 

Personal Protective Equipment

To handle hazardous chemicals, it is imperative to understand how your surroundings and the human body will react to these chemicals. Most chemicals require gloves and a gown to handle properly, and hazardous chemicals always necessitate special protective gear. Know which chemicals require a face shield, rubber gloves, shoe coverings, et cetera. 

Be Aware

It may be unlikely for employees to work closely together with reactive chemicals, but to be sure nothing unexpectedly combusts, it is a good idea to know every chemical simultaneously used in a given setting.

Safety Data Sheets

A very important order of business is to read the safety data sheet (SDS) for each chemical before handling it to fully comprehend all safety measures. This concise information is easily processed with proper training (see above). These safety data sheets explain whether a chemical should be used under a vent hood, only with goggles, or simply with neoprene gloves, for instance. SDSs can be accessed online as well as within the packaging of any chemical.

Bell Chem is a chemical supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including a wide array of chemicals. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

Perchloroethylene

Perchloroethylene – also known as C2Cl4, tetrachloroethylene, PCE, and PERC - is a colorless, nonflammable liquid chemical associated with dry cleaning, printing, and shoe maintenance, among its other starring roles. It has a slightly sweet odor that is easily recognizable even in the smallest amounts of a solvent. The industrial chemical supplier, Bell Chem, stocks this versatile chemical for the following uses.

Dry Cleaning: Interestingly, dry cleaning is not dry at all. Instead, water is replaced with another solvent; generally perchloroethylene – the most widely used dry cleaning solvent in the world – fits this bill and is capable of removing an abundance of organic soils and contaminants.

Degreasing: As a solvent, perchloroethylene acts in an oil, grease, or buffing capacity with metal parts. Hard to reach parts benefit from perchloroethylene vapor, which can reach inside tiny crevices liquids are likely to miss.

Automotive Parts: Brakes and other automobile parts with carbon, dirt, or oil build-up are more easily cleaned with a perchloroethylene solvent. Rubber coatings for automobiles and other industrial machines are possible because of this important chemical.

Creation of Other Chemicals: Perchloroethylene acts as the raw material for chlorofluorocarbons and for the synthesis of hydrofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon. The chloride ions within perchloroethylene act as catalyst promoters and reformers.

Textiles: The scouring, sizing, and desizing properties of perchloroethylene give it appeal to the aerospace industry, which protects surfaces with this chemical during chemical etching processes.

Aerosol Products: Perchloroethylene is used as a solvent in spotting agents and cleaners for removing spinning oils and lubricants and as a carrier in silicones, fabrics, rubbers, glues, and adhesives.

Since the 1930s, perchloroethylene has been sought after for its many abilities, but most especially in dry cleaning. As an ingredient in solvent soaps, printing inks, sealants, paper coatings, leather treatments, polishes, cleaners, and lubricants, it seems a beneficial all-purpose chemical. Contact Bell Chem at 407-339-2355 (BELL) to discover how your business can benefit from stocking perchloroethylene and any of the other products inventoried by Florida’s industrial chemical supplier. Our blogs explain many of our products and their uses.

Caustic Potash 45%

Caustic potash is also known as potassium hydroxide and has the simple chemical formula KOH. Caustic potash is a colorless solid typically sold as translucent pellets and is considered a strong base. Because it is hygroscopic, caustic potash becomes sticky when exposed to air. The “caustic” portion of its name is apropos; most of its applications depend on its corrosive nature and how it reacts with acids. It's exothermic properties cause it to give off substantial heat when mixed with water. Caustic potash 45% is available by the industrial chemical supplier, Bell Chem, because of its varied uses.

• Caustic potash is a precursor to almost all liquid and soft soaps on the market. As caustic potash saponifies fats, the end product is potassium soaps, which are softer than normal. The solubility of caustic potash requires less water to liquefy, thereby giving it the ability to contain more cleaning agents; in other words, less product is used for the same amount of cleansing.

• Chemicals containing potassium generally begin with a reaction to caustic potash. The production of potassium carbonate from caustic potash is used to manufacture television tubes and other specialty glasses.

• Biodiesel formed from vegetable oil requires a chemical such as caustic potash to separate glycerin from the final product.

• Alkaline batteries based on nickel hydrogen, nickel cadmium, and manganese dioxide zinc require an electrolyte for their charge, and aqueous caustic potash’s high ionic conductivity gives it the ability to outperform carbon-based batteries.

• Caustic potash 45% is a common food thickener and stabilizer.

• As a cleaner, caustic potash is a versatile alternative. Lotions, hairsprays, shampoos, and denture cleaners contain KOH as an ingredient. Cleaning becomes more industrious at higher concentrations, and oven cleaners, concrete cleaners, detergents, and drain and pipe cleaners may all contain caustic potash.

• The high solubility of caustic potash 45% is ideal for use as fertilizers since potassium is one of the three major components plants need to thrive.

• Acidic soils benefit from the pH regulating properties of caustic potash. Herbicides may also contain KOH since unwanted vegetation has specific pH needs. Changing the pH will kill the weeds.

• To manufacture paper, caustic potash 45% acts as a defoaming agent.

Along with these multiple uses, caustic potash 45% is also used as a greaser, oxidizer, catalyst, and in electroplating. With so many wide-range uses, caustic potash will surely benefit your organization. Contact the industrial chemical supplier, Bell Chem, at 407-339-2355 (BELL) to learn about our complete line of chemicals and food additives. Our blogs list many of our chemicals and their uses.

Learn More About Bell Chem

Bell Chem has been working with its customers since 1992 when it opened its doors in Longwood, Florida. Our business has grown along with our line of products to today’s impressive lineup of chemicals for the citrus industry, water treatment plants, industrial manufacturing, and other industries demanding the purest chemical compounds shipped quickly, safely, and accurately by your reagent-grade chemical supplier, Bell Chem.

Working individually with each company, Bell Chem determines its business needs and which chemicals are best suited to meet those needs. For instance, the USP-approved antibacterial chemical used in nutritional or food service must be of a different grade than a more heavy-duty form used for industrial use. Likewise, some surfaces may require a cleaner while others need a more stringent sanitizer. The ability to deliver the correct product for every customer makes Bell Chem a leader in all forms of chemical products.

While many of our chemicals are used in the manufacture of nutritional, personal care, and pharmaceutical products, other industrial-strength chemicals clean and sanitize the work surfaces and machinery for those businesses. Most businesses cannot survive without chemicals to extend shelf life, keep food free of pathogens, and sanitize equipment, and Bell Chem is able to satisfy each of those specific areas of need.

Technical-grade chemicals utilized in water treatment facilities are a large component of Bell Chem’s lineup of first-rate chemicals. Industries worldwide rely on our chemicals for product manufacturing and safe food handling. Safe Chem, our business partner for the past 20 years, is your source for sanitation treatment to meet industry standards. With Bell Chem’s CsanTM cleaning and sanitizing chemicals and Safe Chem’s knowledge in training and technical services for food sanitizing and cleaning, we can meet your business’s most stringent quality safety demands for cleanliness and food handling.

Give Bell Chem, the reagent grade chemical supplier, a call at 407-339-BELL (407-339-2355) to learn more about our inventory of chemicals for your industry.

Beauty Care Ingredients at Bell Chem

When consumers think of a chemical supply leader such as Bell Chem, they usually envision heavy-duty industrial chemicals and water-treatment chemicals. Bell Chem has a gentler side, though, as a supplier for beauty care ingredients and nutritional supplements. From adipic acid to zinc oxide, Bell Chem has dozens of chemicals to enhance your cosmetic line. The Food and Drug Administration recognizes three distinct categories of cosmetics – cosmetics, drugs, and soaps. Bell Chem serves all three categories with chemicals, oils, and extracts that can be compounded to create the ultimate product. These raw materials have been refined and tested for efficacy, safety, and shelf life to meet rigorous industry demands and provide you with the ultimate in beauty care chemicals.

Most cosmetics contain four broad categories of ingredients, which combine to create hundreds of thousands of products. Following is a list of these four categories along with examples of each.

• Active ingredients: Active ingredients are the portion of a beauty care product designed to have a pharmacological effect. They will have the greatest impact on skin and hair, and because active ingredients are considered a drug, they are further regulated by the FDA. Examples of active ingredients include sulfur and benzoyl peroxide in acne medications, zinc oxide in sunscreen, and Vitamin E for skin lightening.

• Conditioning ingredients: These are ingredients that give skin and hair a richer, silkier, or fuller effect. Examples are silicone and glycerine in shampoo and propylene glycol as a skin conditioner.

• Functional ingredients: This is the “bulk” of the product that determines if it is a cream, lotion, gel, shampoo, etc. Examples include emulsifiers and polymers, detergents, and pH adjustors.

• Preservatives: Sometimes, preservatives are classified as functional ingredients simply because they stabilize products over an extended period of time. Their second role – retaining product stability without an influx of bacteria, mold, or yeast – gives them a dimension worth categorizing separately. Preservative examples can be anti-microbials such as parabens, and antioxidants to prevent oxygen damage and degradation.

With a range of uses from cosmetics, shampoos, conditioners, antiperspirants, toothpastes and mouthwashes, to infant and baby care products, beauty care chemicals are used everyday by most of the population. Bell Chem believes a more thorough understanding of the role of beauty care chemicals, as well as their derivatives will ensure customers are better informed when they purchase hygiene-related products. Contact Bell Chem at 407-339-2355 (BELL) to speak with one of our beauty care experts, and browse the product information on our website for details on an array of chemicals for you and your company.

Bell Chem & Partner Safe Chem Solutions

For more than 20 years, Bell Chem, your sanitation chemical supplier, has worked side by side with Safe Chem to deliver high-quality chemicals across many industries. Along with Bell Chem’s product line, Safe Chem offers products and services to industries, such as the citrus industry, the dairy production industry, food and beverage manufacturers, and produce industries. Safe Chem provides a variety of services with Bell Chem. Along with training and technical service, Safe Chem specializes in food industry sanitation, wet and dry conveyor and chain lubrication, facility assessment, and fruit and vegetable washing. Packaging and processing equipment are cleaned and sanitized by Safe Chem, the chemical company specializing in chlorine dioxide. Together with Bell Chem, their line of CsanTM sanitation chemicals provides general purpose and foaming and alkaline cleaners, acid and chlorinated detergents, lubricants for conveyors and chains, and an abundance of sanitizers.

Safe Chem offers both services and technical support to industry leaders. With training seminars in Good Manufacturing Practices, safety, and sanitation techniques, Safe Chem focuses on reducing costs and increasing profitability for businesses with their quality control plans that evaluate performance by developing measurement techniques and creating common goals.

Sanitation chemical supplier, Bell Chem, and Safe Chem have a proven partnership that has worked since 1994. With Safe Chem’s line of products and services and Bell Chem’s industrial and technical-grade chemicals and nutritional and cosmetic supplements, these two companies are the perfect combination. Call Bell Chem today at 407-339-2355 (BELL) for more product information.

Bell Chem Verified Compliant via 3rd Party Audit from D.L. Newslow and Associates

Bell Chem has completed verification via 3rd Party Audit by D.L. Newslow and Associates with compliance pertaining to food & product safety. The following were verified compliant by the audit: Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Food Safety Control Measures, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), and Prerequisite Programs (PRP). A successful Food Safety 3rd party audit heralds a new level of customer confidence & prestige for Bell Chem. GMP certification ensures quality standards are met for their food, nutritional, and pharmaceutical product storage. The Food Safety Control Measures involves controls for potential food hazards in the facility. HACCP is a quality control program that approaches food safety from a biological, chemical, and physical standpoint to minimize hazards in production processes; specific design measurements in the HACCP program are in place to reduce these risks. PRP’s are an important piece in meeting food safety standards. PRP’s successfully audited included cleaning & sanitation, shipping & receiving, allergen control, recalls & traceability, cross-contamination prevention, GMP’s, and more.

Bell Chem has sought Food Safety 3rd Party Audit compliance for many years and is proud their standards have been recognized. Customers are now ensured the handling and processing of all products meet high standards.

About Bell Chem Founded in 1992, Bell Chem is a food ingredient & chemical distributor located in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando). Along with a full line of industrial and water treatment chemicals, we offer a diverse blend of food, pharmaceutical, and personal care raw materials, many highly specialized botanical and nutritional ingredients, as well as hard to find technical grade chemicals and custom compounds. Bell Chem’s mission is to provide you with the highest quality products, expedited for maximum efficiency, with unrivaled and personalized customer service.

Calcium Gluconate Monohydrate

Hearing the word “calcium” most often causes an individual to envision strong bones.  While this is true, calcium plays many extremely important roles in the maintenance of the body above and beyond healthy bones. Calcium gluconate is a mineral supplement taken to regulate one or more of calcium’s functions. The moniker “monohydrate” distinguishes the atomic structure by its appending of a hydrogen atom. The formation of calcium gluconate (a calcium salt) is derived from the neutralization of gluconic acid with lime or calcium carbonate. Applications of calcium gluconate monohydrate include the more well-known use to counteract osteoporosis or other osseous abnormalities. Calcium is substantial in its other actions within the human body, such as maintenance of a normal heart rhythm, negating abnormally high levels of potassium in the bloodstream, in treatment of hypoparathyroidism, and assisting in the maintenance of homeostasis in the nervous and muscular systems. The addition of calcium gluconate monohydrate for patients who do not or cannot ingest calcium from their typical diets will promote a healthier life. Short term use may include the treatment of black widow spider bites with calcium gluconate monohydrate to counter muscle spasms and cramps. Forms of this versatile chemical for each unique use can be found at a chemical supplier in Florida.

Calcium gluconate monohydrate’s white, crystalline appearance is odorless as well as tasteless.  This supplement is available in granules or powder form at a chemical supplier in Florida. Although insoluble in alcohol, calcium gluconate monohydrate is soluble in water, although the process is quite slow unless the water temperature is above 100°C.  Its chemical formula is C12H22CaO14.H2O.

In the food industry, calcium gluconate intensifies water-binding properties and acts as a nutritional supplement in the manufacture of sausage products. It may also be found in dairy products, edible ices, canned vegetables, puddings and batters, processed meat, soups and sauces, beer and wine, and prepared foods. For these uses, calcium gluconate monohydrate acts as a firming agent, sequestrant, and/or an acid reducer. When you are seeking a chemical supplier, Florida is the home of Bell Chem. Our company offers hundreds of food-grade, nutritional, sanitary, and water treatment chemicals, among others. Contact us today at (407) 339-2355 to learn more.

Sipernat 22 Food Grade

Sipernat 22 food grade is a precipitated silica (silicon dioxide) that generates good flowability into a mixed product. When powdered ingredients are added to either wet or dry mixes, the possibility exists that too little or too much of the powder will end up within any given sample. Bell Chem, the nutritional chemical supplier in Orlando, offers Sipernat 22 food grade to alleviate this situation. By adding Sipernat 22 to nutritional supplements, your product will combine properly with the same ingredients in every bite, sip, or tablet. Read more about Sipernat 22 below.

• Sipernat 22 has the ability to evenly disperse powdered products while absorbing oil, water or other forms of moisture from the surface of the powder, leaving a smooth amalgamation.

• Absorption of liquids also acts in decreasing stickiness in powders.

• When added to a spray tower, Sipernat 22 reduces the tendency of caking inside the machinery. De-caking machinery takes valuable time from manufacturing; caking of materials diminishes the total amount of product.

• In supplements, Sipernat 22 gives much more accurate nutritional dosages.

• Shelf life is extended in products containing Sipernat 22.

• Sipernat 22 is highly pure with no additives; the same quality of product exists over long expanses of time. Because it is a natural product, it can be added to skin care products as a natural thickener.

• Sipernat 22 is uniform in texture with minimized dust generation.

Adding Sipernat 22 food grade to nutritional supplements is advantageous in dozens of ways. Use Sipernat 22 either as an additive in solid tablets or capsules, or in mixes to reduce dust, caking, and clumping. With the ability to extend the shelf life of products and keep them as fresh when you open them today as they were when you purchased them, Sipernat 22 is the right product for your nutritional supplement needs. Bell Chem, your nutritional chemical supplier, is available at (407) 339-2355 (BELL) with any questions you may have pertaining to Sipernat 22 food grade or any of their other chemicals and supplements. Please browse our website for an abridged product list.

Jeffcool P200 (Inhibited Propylene Glycol)

The food and beverage industry relies on Jeffcool P200 (inhibited propylene glycol) for chilling and freezing. Among its many applications are immersion freezing, fermentation cooling in wineries and breweries, and cooling liquid foods. Defrosting and dehumidifying the industrial facilities housing the foods and beverages is another use for Jeffcool P200, which gives you even more reason to purchase this all-purpose chemical from Bell Chem, your industrial chemical supplier. See more uses for Jeffcool P200 below.

• Beverage and flavoring companies: Carbonated beverages are chilled in Jeffcool P200 before bottling to preserve carbonation.

• Spray and immersion freezing of packaged foods: Jeffcool quickly freezes the outermost layer of foods to retain freshness before products enter lower temperatures. Simply spray or immerse the food until the correct depth of freeze is achieved. Even oddly-shaped foods are evenly frozen.

• Breweries, distilleries, and wineries: Jeffcool P200 is used in cooling batches of beer and wine because small amounts of the chemical do not negatively affect the yeast or fermentation processing. Likewise, Jeffcool P200 can be utilized to cool beer storage tanks, yeast storage tanks, and fermentation tanks.

• Champagne production: Inverted bottles of aged champagne dipped in a chilled bath of Jeffcool P200 freeze the contents in the neck of the bottle, thereby trapping sediment for easy removal.

• Cooling agent in dairy processing, food, and meat product processing, such as poultry processing plants: The temperatures of milk are lowered more rapidly when immersed in Jeffcool P200, reducing bacterial count and allowing for bottling more quickly. Dairies and food processors use Jeffcool P200 to cool molds used in plastic bottle blow molding.

Jeffcool P200 is basically odorless and colorless, not considered flammable, has low corrosivity, is a dependable temperature control, is easily regenerated and reconcentrated, and gives simple system maintenance and operation, which lead to productivity increases and cost savings. Jeffcool P200 is available at Bell Chem along with hundreds of other useful food grade and industrial chemicals. Call the industrial chemical supplier, Bell Chem, at (407) 339-2355 (BELL) today to order Jeffcool P200, and read our blogs for the latest information on all our chemicals.