Subject: Storing chemicals
Mark Ryan <mryan [at] plainsart__org> writes >I'm interested in hearing from those responsible for the storage of >organic solvents and/or acids and bases in their respective >institutions and labs. The safe storage of chemicals is often a complicated issue. A serious concern is potential incompatibilities with other chemicals stored in the same area. In order to store chemicals properly, a register of chemicals in the laboratory should be made (most universities and institutes have a standard chemical register system used in all labs). This is a list of all chemicals and their location, some people sort this list alphabetically, by location and by chemical name. In the same folder, or at least kept in the same place a full set of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for all chemicals is required. In the area chemicals are used and stored there should be another set of MSDSs for those chemicals, this allows for people to access information about the chemicals they are about to use. MSDSs are available from the supplier of the chemical and it is best to ask for this when you are having the chemical delivered to you. You should pay special attention to incompatible chemicals, some chemicals should not be stored with others as they can come into contact with each other (even without damage to containers) and cause dangerous situations. Lists of these are available from large chemical suppliers as well as government agencies. I only have experience with the Australian requirements for chemical safety. The best thing to do is contact your government agency on chemical safety, there will be guidelines that laboratories must follow for the safe storage of chemicals. I believe the US has a standard system of registering, storing and labelling chemicals so that laboratories can be consistent with one another. This sort of system would be worth looking into as much of the work has been done for you, generally these can be bought for a reasonable price from scientific and chemical suppliers (Cole-Palmer is the only US scientific supplier that I have heard of but there would be many others). I'll add that only flammable liquids should be stored in a flammable liquids cabinet, it is unsafe to store any other chemical within the cabinet or to exceed the flammable liquid volume maximum that the cabinet recommends. Rachel White Science PhD student University of Technology, Sydney Sydney, Australia *** Conservation DistList Instance 17:59 Distributed: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 Message Id: cdl-17-59-003 ***Received on Tuesday, 9 March, 2004