Yearly inspections are carried out by two faculty (including the Chemical Hygiene Officer) and two graduate students (appointed by the Association of Chemistry Graduate Students).
LABORATORY HAZARD INSPECTION REPORT
Department of Chemistry Safety Committee
Room:_______ Faculty/Staff Supervisor____________________ Date:____________
____ Safety Glasses not being worn Inspectors:________________________
____ Smoking in the Lab
____ Drinking/Eating in the Lab
____ Fire Extinguisher: Missing [ ] Unmounted [ ] Blocked [ ] Wrong type [ ]
____ Blockage of Exit/Second exit
____ Eyewash [ ] not operable [ ] none
____ Blockage of Shower
____ Unsafe Chemical Storage [ ] Clutter [ ] Proximity (Acids to Bases, Redox)
[ ] Height (No big solvent/corrosive bottles over 5 ft. from floor)
[ ] Floor (No glass bottles on floor)
____ Floor used as storage area
____ Cluttered hood/ rear vent blocked
____ Blockage of makeup air vents
____ Unstrapped Gas Cylinders (even if marked empty)
____ Electrical Problems [ ] Overused outlet [ ] Bad wiring [ ] Light out in hood
____ Machine Guard / Belt Guard missing
____ Vacuum pump not vented to hood or trapped
____ Water hoses not clamped at connections/loose enough to touch hot glass.
____ No catch basin under mercury container
____ Mercury open to air
____ Untaped Dewar flask
____ View through window blocked
____ Unlabeled solvent still
____ Unlabel chemical vials or bottles
____ Flammables/meltables piled on or near oven
____ Undated open ether cans
____ Lack of warning signs for laser
____ General Clutter
This handout is intended to elaborate on many of the topics that are be involved in the lab inspection program. It is part of the "Chemical Hygiene Manual", but not its total. Some of these are problems still in search of an ideal answer; we are working on official departmental policy and answers. While you may object to many of the conditions given here, saying "We can't do research if we follow that rule..", I point out (1) if we have a bad accident and get shut down, we assuredly won't be doing research; (2) if you have the intelligence to get a Ph.D. in chemistry, you are smart enough to figure out imaginative ways to comply with the safety rules, both consistent with them in spirit and fact, and still get your research done. You are being trained as a problem solver; practice it!
Safety Glasses:
In the teaching labs, there is a state OSHA requirement to wear the Type 2 goggles (flexible, complete enclosure), that totally shield the eyes. There is no way around this. Regular eyeglasses, even with the side safety shields, are not acceptable. In the research labs we have more leeway on what is acceptable. When working with glass under vacuum, or potentially explosive or spattering mixtures, it is obviously prudent to use the best eye protection available, as well as safety shields, hood sashes, etc. For routine lab work, where exceptional hazards are not expected, the strict use of the goggles will not be enforced, but:
!!YOU MUST WEAR SOME KIND OF EYE PROTECTION AT ALL TIMES IN A RESEARCH LAB.!!
There are no exceptions to this rule. If you are not as inherently myopic as some of us, who can't find the floor if we take off our glasses, you must wear some type of eye protection. If you find the inexpensive plastic lab glasses uncomfortable, you should get a regular pair of frames fitted with flat lenses. Plastic lenses are okay; the epoxy resin that is used in plastic lenses is impervious to all organic chemicals that we tried, including chromic acid cleaning solution and 50% NaOH. Such glasses are a legitimate business expense and are tax deductible.
Please note that contact lenses are a problem: if you are injured, and the attending personnel are unaware that you wear contacts lenses, serious eye damage can occur before they are removed.
No Smoking in the Lab
This is an absolute rule, for obvious reason of flammability. In addition, University policy states that smoking is permitted only in designated, well-ventilated areas. The designated smoking area in Buehler is the stairwell at the north end of the west wing (near the BU 601,501,401,301 offices, in the stairwell itself, not the hall outside).
No Eating/Drinking in the Lab
Again, this is an OSHA rule. The ACGS room is under renovation, and will be available for eating in the future.
Fire Extinguisher
Missing [ ] Unmounted [ ] Blocked [ ] Wrong type [ ]
You should have the location of the fire extinguishers in the labs where you work memorized, as well as what type they are. There are four majors types available:
- Water: These are only good for paper fires; don't use them on any chemical blaze. There should be *none* of these in Buehler/Dabney.
- CO2: Okay for most chemical fires, but not burning metals (Na, K, Mg, etc.). Beware the blast: it can knock over flasks and make things worse.
- powder: like CO2, don't use on metal fires, and the blast can be dangerous.
- flammable metal: These smother a burning metal fire. You pour the powder over the fire from a long tube. We are attempting to get these from the University for the appropriate labs. If you use reactive metals in your lab, let us know that you need one.
Every lab should have at least one powder or CO2 extinguisher, and ideally two.
Blockage of Exit
Every lab should have a second exit, ideally across the lab from the main one, for emergency exit. These should have completely clear access available. No equipment that hinders the opening of the door may be stored near these, no matter how short on space you are. This applies to both sides of the door: what the researchers in the lab next to yours do may affect your safety in an emergency. Watch out for your neighbors blocking your emergency exit.
Blockage of Shower
Yes, I know there's no drain in most labs, but if you need the shower, cleaning up afterwards is the least of your worries. Don't store stuff underneath the shower, keep electrical cords off the floor, and don't prop the handle up so high that it can't be reached by any person.
Unsafe Chemical Storage
Clutter
Height
Proximity
There is a strong tendency to be a "packrat" with old chemicals, for justifiable reasons: these are money in the bank against times of low funding. However, this is also the area where we are probably the most in violation of OSHA rules, since there are strict limits on the quantities that can be legally stored in a lab. We need to differentiate between class IA chemicals (flash points below -30C) such as ethyl ether, pentane, acetaldehyde, methyl formate, pet ether, and carbon disulfide, and the general run of flammable chemicals. For the former, technically you can have no more than one (1) gallon in a room, and that must be in a metal can or in a metal solvent cabinet. Total for all flammable chemicals of any type in one lab is legally 12 gallons. For tech grade acetone, no more than one gallon or a 1/2 day supply can be kept in a lab. These are obviously severe restrictions on research, and the inspection crew is not going to come down on you about having several cans of ether. However, the solvent safety cabinet (these are the heavy yellow metal ones with bifold doors) are a good idea for storing all your solvents. Work on your research directors to get these for you ($$$). I note that a standard size fire extinguisher in trained hands is capable of putting out a fire from one liter of spilled solvent. How much do you have stored in the lab?
A second safety point is general clutter. This is not only bad PR when guests are in the lab, but leads to accidents, due to crowding from a lack of working bench space, and increases research costs, due to re-purchasing of chemicals that you have but can't find. It is well worth a research group's time and funding to have chemicals sorted on the shelves and cataloged in a card file as to location. A general inventory should be done yearly, both to keep the file up to date, and to check everything for leaking, corroded, or broken caps, or decomposed chemicals. Look at the contents, not just the label! Is your sodium can dry? How old is that nearly empty can of ether? This cataloging is often done alphabetically, but there is a drawback to that in terms of the proximity of incompatible chemicals: one shouldn't store oxidants on a shelf just above reducing reagents, strong acids next to strong bases, etc. Yes, they are in good bottles now, but the whole point of safety is that accidents do happen, and you must plan for them, not cross your fingers. Storing chemicals by functional groups is usually safer.
You should date all ether cans with the opening date, and be very wary of anything over three months old. These can accumulate explosive peroxides that detonate when dry. A test for peroxides (from Chemist's Companion):
Add 3 ml of the ether to 1 ml of water containing 1 mg Na2Cr2O7 and 1 drop dilute H2SO4. Shake. A blue color in the organic layer (perchromate ion) indicates the presence of peroxides.
There are more sensitive tests, and methods for removing the peroxides, given in Chemist's Companion.
There is an OSHA rule that corrosives (concentrated acids and bases) cannot be store in glass bottles more than five feet off the floor. The new plastic coated acid bottles may make this a moot point, since everyone that I've talked to says that they've never seen one of these leak when shattered, but do you want to be the first case?
We will cite labs for overcrowded shelves of chemicals: no part of the bottle can extend beyond the front of the shelf. East Tennessee has earthquakes! [Richter 3.9 in middle TN/N. AL 1988) A little more shaking, and the cleanup would be appreciable. We will also cite labs for storing chemicals in glass bottles on the floor.
Floor used as storage area
Don't. Keep the aisles clear.
Cluttered hood
Hoods are not just boxes with big fans attached, that mysteriously make all your problems disappear. Instead, they are carefully engineered devices, whose proper operation is rather easy to defeat if you don't know what you're doing, or are deliberately ignoring the rules.
Hoods exhaust the air in two places: benchtop level for heavier- than-air vapors, and at the top for lighter-than-air fumes. The back wall (on modern ones, at least) is not solid, but a baffle with an air channel behind it, that takes the heavy gases up to the top and out. The knobs that are often present on the back panel, or levers on the sides of newer units, are designed to adjust the mixture of heavy and light exhaust that occurs, by varying the size of the air passage behind the back baffle.
Thus, anything that blocks airflow at the bottom of the back of the hood impedes its effectiveness. The urge to push all the bottles, beakers, etc. to the back of the hood bench, in order to have more space to work, is counterproductive. Items should be moved to the sides of the hood where there is no airflow. The back edge of the benchtop should remain clear. If you must store bottles of chemicals in the hood due to stench reasons, get shelves made for the sides of the hood. Also, one should yearly clean any dust and lint from behind the baffle, to improve airflow. This is most easily done with a bent coathanger wiggled behind it from below.
A hood should pull between 60 and 120 cu. ft./min. of air (ca. 1-3 linear ft/sec) when the sash is down to about a foot above bench level. It is possible for a hood to pull too fast, which causes vortexing of the air inside, reducing flow up the exhaust. Also, as one walks past a hood, the draft from your passage (2 mile/hr = 3 ft/sec) can reverse the airflow from a hood that is on the slow end of the above range, pulling air back into the lab. One should move slowly around a hood! Measuring the airflow quantitatively takes elaborate equipment, but a quick qualitative device is free: tape a 1" wide by 5" long strip of Kim-wipe or Kleenex to the bottom center of the sash. If it doesn't swing in by 30o to 45o degrees with the sash at one foot high, your airflow is too low. This also provides a useful means of determining whether a hood is working from across the lab, upon first entering, since it is so easy to see. YOU are responsible for verifying that a hood is working, before you carry out any procedure in it.
Blockage of makeup air vents
Hoods only work if there is air available to them. This is called "make-up" air, and must be provided to the lab through vents of some kind. The best modern hoods (none in Buehler/Dabney) provide this partially as unheated outside air, entering the hood at benchtop level, so that only ca. 30-40% of the air going up the hood comes form the heated (expensive) lab air. Most labs (new Buehler) have a vent in the wall or ceiling to provide the fresh air into the lab. These must not be blocked! Lab design is such that this should be carefully balanced for hood exhaust by having the doors to the hall closed as well, so that all the make-up air comes from the vent, to sweep out the lab. This also keeps the lab at a negative pressure with respect to the halls, so that stenches go up the hood, not spread throughout the building. If you do have an odoriferous spill in your lab, don't open the hall doors to get rid of it; that just makes it someone else's problem. Let the lab air system handle it as it was designed to do, even if this means your clearing out of the lab for a while. The safety inspection team can't check all these items concerning airflow, other than verifying that make-up air sources are not blocked. It is to the advantage of anyone (and everyone) working in a lab, to periodically check the airflow from the make-up air vent (doors closed, a strip of Kleenex held up to the vent) to be sure that things are working properly. Just because the mechanical equipment is there doesn't mean that Physical Plant or accidents haven't fouled things up.
Unstrapped Gas Cylinders
All gas cylinders larger than a lecture bottle should be secured at all times with a standard strap assembly clamped to a solid benchtop, or by a similar chain assembly screwed to the bench (the Chemistry Wood Shop can provide the latter very inexpensively). "It's empty" is NOT an acceptable excuse for an unstrapped cylinder; you don't know that for sure unless there's a hole in the cylinder, so CLAMP IT DOWN! Any cylinder without a regulator attached must have the metal valve cap installed and screwed down.
Electrical Problems
Overused outlet
Bad wiring
An overused outlet is one with more things plugged into it than there are sockets: DON'T USE OCTOPUS PLUGS! There are circuit breakers associated with the outlets in your lab; do you know where they are? Do you know which outlets are on a common circuit, and which on another? Do you know how many amps a heat plate/stirrer/water bath/etc. use? It is your responsibility to be aware of these things, and not to assume that the designers of the laboratory knew in advance how much power your particular research might need, so that the lab was wired with enough capacity.
You should, at least yearly, inspect the cords and cables of all electrical appliances and equipment in your lab. Do this by (1) unplugging the cord, (2) bending it double over its whole length, and (3) looking for cracks in the insulation. If you see any, it should be replaced. The Electronics shop will do this for you.
Electrical cords should never be run across the floor, due to the hazards of spills, floods, and resultant shorting. Elevate them off the floor with a ramp of some kind. Secure them, so that people do not trip on them.
Machine Guard missing
All moving mechanical devices (with belts on mechanical vacuum pumps the principal offender) should be covered by a guard to prevent snaring of fingers, hair, etc. Again, the Mechanical Shop can install these on older pumps.
Vacuum pump not vented to hood
Ideally, the vapors that are pumped away by vacuum pumps are captured by Dry Ice/acetone or liquid nitrogen traps. This is primarily to increase the life of the pump and the oil. Nevertheless, it is not an uncommon occurrence for traps to warm up, either by accident or forgetfulness. The vent from a mechanical pump should be exhausted to a hood or similar exhaust, to prevent toxic fumes from getting into the lab air. If you are using a dry ice trap, some ether can get by these even when they are working properly. The Mechanical Shop can make a small adapter, to connect a hose to the exhaust to run to the hood.
Water hoses not clamped
Rubber or plastic water hoses should be secured to the glass nipple to which they are attached by twisted wire. They should also be attached to metal frames or stands with tape or twisted wire, if they can come in contact with hot surfaces like hot plates, baths, or heated flasks. This is especially true for things left running overnight. Day or night, hoses should be clamped at the water faucet. If you use the plastic "quick- connect" fittings for hoses, these must also be clamped securely with a joint clamp. A minor leak that is easily caught during the day can be a major disaster if water flows all night into someone else's lab. The outlet of the hose in a sink or trough should be weighted to prevent its flopping out of the basin.
No catch basin under mercury container
Mercury spills are especially insidious, in that the traditional method of cleaning them up with powdered sulfur is next to useless; the reaction is far too slow at room temperature. There will be a small (aspirator powered) mercury vacuum in the spill kit being set up in the Xerox room, plus chemicals to dust with after the macroscopic bits are cleaned up. The best cure is to have a catch basin under any container of mercury, such as manometers or MacLeod gauges. The ideal basin is the cut-off bottom of a plastic gallon milk bottle (free!).
Untaped Dewar flask
To prevent accidents from glass shards in an implosion, all Dewar flasks should either be taped with strong tape like electrical or duct tape, or have the fine plastic mesh around them.
View through window blocked
Unless a lab has a specific need for being light-tight, such as a laser lab, at least half the window pane in the door must be clear of cartoons, graffiti, xeroxes, etc. We need to see into a lab in an emergency, before going charging into a situation.
OTHER GENERAL SAFETY PRACTICES:
It is always a good idea to leave a small sign next to (on the hood sash) any reaction left unattended, so in case of a crisis, your labmates can handle runaway reactions or spills. This need only be the reagent/reactants/products -on-an-arrow type description, plus your name. This could save you lost product and time, etc. This is certainly true for any reaction left overnight.
All labs should have emergency phone numbers posted outside them on the yellow safety forms.