Hazards of Commonly Used Construction Materials

The left-hand column of the list below consists of materials commonly found at construction sites. Each one represents a potential physical or health hazard to individuals exposed to them. Some of the materials on the list are raw materials, containing no mixture of ingredients (i.e. Argon) while many of the materials on the list represent formulated mixtures of other substances including at least one ingredient that is itself hazardous.

The materials and ingredients on the list that are underlined in black are linked to the Hazard Overview and MSDS the HazMat Zone maintains for them. Since the HazMat Zone cannot create or maintain MSDS information for commercial products with trade-protected formulations of ingredients, you'll find such products (i.e. caulking compound) on this list underlined in red. Clicking on those products will take you to the SIRI website's directory page of vendor-supplied MSDSs for those products.

MATERIAL MAJOR HAZARDOUS INGREDIENT Asphalt Petroleum hydrocarbons Acetylene Acetylene Aluminum Aluminum dust Argon Argon Asbestos Asbestos fibers Brass and bronze Copper, zinc, tin Cadmium Cadmium Copper Copper Caulking Compound Various Contact Cement Toluene, xylene, 1,1,1-Trichloroethane Concrete Various Diesel fuel Petroleum hydrocarbons Dynamite Nitroglycerine Epoxy Resins Various Epoxy Hardeners Various Explosion byproducts Nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide Fiber glass Glass fibers Freon Chlorofluorocarbons Galvanized metal Zinc Gasoline Petroleum hydrocarbons Grinding wheels Aluminum oxide dusts Iron Iron Lead Lead Monel Nickel, copper Nitrogen Nitrogen Nuisance dusts Titanium dioxide, etc. Motor Oil Heated petroleum oil Oxygen Oxygen Paint - oil - based Various Pavement sealer Coal tar Polyester resins Various Portland Cement Calcium and aluminum silicates PVC pipe Cement Ketones, tetrahydrofuran Sand blast sand Crystalline silica Sewer line sealer Acrylamide Steel (carbon) Iron Steel (alloy) Manganese Steel (high nickel) Nickel stainless Nickel, chromium Transformer oil Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) Urethanes Isocyanates