Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 2521. First, know what you are filling: Hazardous Chemical Warning Label (8-1/2 X 11). The document is titled DD Form 25 21, Hazardous Chemical Warning Label (8 x 11), October 2000.
Then look at the edition date: not stated, publisher status not stated. After that, ask whether the form covers your situation. It almost certainly does regardless of your branch — DD forms run Department-wide rather than through a single service.
Then settle the schedule. You are working under not stated, with not stated responsible for the document, and your organization layers its own deadlines on that. Ask before you assume a date.
Finally, decide how you will complete it. You can type into a fillable file or print a blank and write by hand, and the rest of this page walks you through both paths in order.
Begin at the top and move down. Enter your identifying data first, then the body of the form, then the signature block. The sequence is printed in that order because entries below frequently follow from entries above.
Before your first entry, look at the corner of the page and compare the printed date with not stated. If they do not match, stop and download again. Old copies circulate in shared drives for years, and a DD form is revised centrally for every service at once, so a superseded blank may not carry the fields your reviewer expects.
Work through the fields one at a time and leave nothing blank. When a box does not apply to you, write N/A rather than skipping it, so the reviewer can see you read the question. Follow the date format printed beside each date field instead of the one you normally use.
Do not skip past the Privacy Act Statement. It is placed ahead of the personal data fields on purpose: it explains under what authority you are being asked, what happens to the information, and what follows if you decline. Take the minute it costs.
Sign only after every other entry is complete. Use ink on a printed copy, or a credentialed digital signature — CAC-based, in a reader that handles it — on an electronic one. A typed name satisfies neither method. Enter the date next to it before you close the file.
Review before you submit. Look for a superseded edition, blank mandatory fields, illegible writing, dates in the wrong format, and an unsigned or undated certification.
For questions about a specific entry, check the form's own instructions, and if that does not settle it, open not stated. The directive controls where they differ.
Download the form
Step one is picking the format. You have PDF to choose from, across 1 pages, with approximately 19 fields to complete.
Take the pdf if you are unsure. Then check which kind you have: if the boxes highlight when you click them, you have a fillable pdf and can type straight into it, and your entries save with the file. If nothing highlights, you have a printable pdf — send it to a printer and use black ink.
Go with the typed route whenever the choice is yours. Consider what happens after you submit: the copy gets scanned, forwarded and filed, and each pass costs handwriting some legibility. Block letters help if you are stuck with a pen.
Before you take the xfdl file, make sure you can open it. Install IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or an equivalent client first, because your pdf reader will refuse the file. Then download and complete it as normal.
You will not be charged for any of these; the whole set is free. Before you start entering data, save the file to your computer and open it there. Fields behave far more reliably in a desktop reader than in a browser preview.
What the form asks for
- 1. Chemical/common name.
- 2. Hazard code.
- 3. NSN or LSN.
- 4. Part number.
- 5. Item name.
- 6. Hazards. a. Health. Press space bar to mark X in first box if acute (immediate): none, second box if slight, third box if moderate, fourth box if severe, or fifth box if chronic (delayed).
- b. Contact: acute (immediate). X first box if none, second box if slight, third box if moderate, or fourth box if severe.
- c. Fire: acute (immediate). X first box if none, second box if slight, third box if moderate, or fourth box if severe.
- d. Reactivity: acute (immediate). X first box if none, second box if slight, third box if moderate, or fourth box if severe.
- 7. Specific hazards and precautions, including target organ effects. See M S D S for further information
- 8. Protect: X if eyes.
- X if skin.
- X if respiratory.
- 9. Contact. a. Company name.
- b. Address, include street number, street, P O box, city, state, and zip code.
- c. Emergency telephone number, include area code.
- 10. Procurement year for hazardous chemical.
- Press this Reset button to clear the data from all fields.
With the form finished, route it to the office named in not stated or in your organization's own instruction. Keep a copy first. People rarely regret having one and frequently regret not having one.
If the form points you to another document, you can find it by number alone. DD numbering runs across the whole Department, so you do not need to work out which service issued it — one number, one form, everywhere.
Watch out for one trap here. If your instructions cite a DA form as well, do not assume the numbers are connected. DA numbering belongs to the Army alone; DD numbering belongs to the Department and is administered by not stated or another Department office. The same number in each system means two unrelated forms, so read the prefix before you download.
Plan to repeat this step whenever the form comes up again. Revisions follow directive changes, changes in what data is collected, and updates to notice language. Since nobody notifies you, check not stated at download and you have covered it.
Before you go, note what is not covered here. You have the blank form and instructions for completing it; you do not have legal guidance, and no statement on this page determines what any office will do with your submission. Direct those questions to not stated, to the personnel office that serves you, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2521?
- DD Form 25 21, Hazardous Chemical Warning Label (8 x 11), October 2000
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?