edited by MIRIAMC. NAGEL Avo" High Schwl Avon. CT 06001
Disposal, Labeling, and Storage in a High School Chemistry Laboratory Patrick Lang Brislrd Central High Schwl Bristd. CT 06010
When I returned from Vietnam about 18 years ago, the high school where I now teach was just opening. At that time all the chemicals from the old school, some of them 20 or more vears old. were moved to the stockroom of the new school. There they remained for years, crammed, along with newlv ordered chemicals. into two tall cabinets about 7 feet highand 8 feet long. h he shelves were so full, the cabinets' sliding doors could not be closed. o n the opposite wall of the room, two equipment cabinets were soon also filled to overflowing. Drawers a t the bottom held equipment like burners and-meter sticks. Glassware filled the top halves. Atop all four cabinets were piles of boxes of elassware. noised readv to toonle. A tall metal cabinet heid exotic'o;ganic com&unds. he back wall was covered with shelws filled with shoe boxes holding more equipment and individual lab setups. Large bottles of concentrated acids and ammonium hydroxide littered the floor. Over the years conditions in the stockroom gave several OSHA inspectors writer's cramp and, I suspect, nightmares. About three years ago, two events led to the final remedy for this intolerable situation. First, one day a strong organic chemical odor led, after much digging, to an ancient metal can of ethyl acetate which had r ~ s t e dthrough, allowing its contents to drin out. Shortlv afwr that. the administration asked for a list'of all the cdemicals in the stockroom. This reauest. nromnted bv the school svstem's insurance carrier. meant t i a t anainven&ry of all chemicals had to be made. 1t was a perfect opportunity to evaluate the hazards of all the chemicals and dispose of those that were most hazardous or not needed. Armed with reference materials (1.2).an alphabetized file card inventory was made (3). The most obviously hazardous chemicals were removed and stored in a locked, unused lavatory adjacent to the chemistry laboratory until the best methods for their disposal could be ascertained (4-6). About 30 bottles of chemicals including benzene (7). acrolein, formaldehyde, arsenides, and cyanides were removed. I t was also discovered that a large bottle of phenol in the back of a cabinet had spilled some time before. I t had eaten into and encrusted a section of the cabinet. All cabinets were washed down and the phenol-encrusted section was removed. The state DEP was called for advice. They recommended commercial disposal, but commercial firms responded to queries with multithousand-dollar prices. Further inquiries led to a staff member's spouse who works as a chemist for a large industry in the area. The spouse took some of the unwanted material and placed i t in that company's disposal system. The bottles of concentrated acids and ammonium hydroxide were moved from the stockroom floor to the locked lavatory. Eventually they were placed in a newly purchased acid cabinet. There was one mishap. As an old case of sulfuric acid was lifted to move it, a liter bottle fell through the bottom of the box and broke on the floor. The above process took about a year and a half. Conditions were improved, hut hardly a d e n t was made in the mess
in the stockroom. What was needed was a massive throwaway effort. The impetus for this came last year with the decision to put NFPA hazard warning labels on all chemicals. Each bottle had to be removed from a shelf, a sticker attached, and a number applied for each of three types of hazards (8).I t was decided that each bottle should be evaluated as to whether it should be returned to the shelf or discarded. The best criterion seemed to be whether or not the chemical would be used. Most of the chemicals we were storing had not been used in my 15 years in the school. A list was made of the chemicals needed for labs and demonstration. If there was any doubt, the chemical was discarded. Some chemicals that are used were overstocked, such as 35 pounds of sulfur. Excess quantities of these chemicals were discarded. The aid of two students was enlisted to eo throueh the file card inventory attach the NFPA stickerio eachcard, and lookup and fill in the proper code numbers (9). There were a number of chemicals for which we were unable to find NFPA listinas. A search is continuing to find references for these chcm'~cnlsoral,etterlnbelings;stem (10J.Thestudents then removed from the file all cards for chemicals not on the list of chemicals to be kept. There were a b m t 110 of thew cards. I t took about three weeks for the whole process. Over the next two months each bottle was individually removed from the shelf and checked against the card file. If its card was not in the file, the chemical was moved to the locked lavatory to await disposal. If its card was in the file, the amount on hand was noted. anv excess removed. a label attached and filled out exactly'like the one on its card, and the bottle returned to the shelf. After removing several hundred bottles of unwanted or surplus chemicals, the entire remainins inventorvcould fit into less than half of one of the two tall cabinets. The problem now was how to get rid of the discarded chemicals, most of which might be of use t o someone and were not hazardous (11).Our previous resource for disposal was not interested in anything of this magnitude, so we had to look elsewhere. Other schools in the system and other school systems were told of what we had and encouraged to come and take what they needed. Some of the many colleges in the area and some nearbv industries also heloed out. Still this was not enough, and a commercial disposal company was hired. Thev are ~ r e s e n t l vconductine- a svstem-wide . analysis and wilisoon remove thelast of the unwanted chemicals. Previously the chemicals had been stored more or less alphabeticallv in the two tall cabinets. Now with more room we had an opportunity to separate incompatible chemicals safely (12). But this storage method makes i t much more difficult and time-consuming to locate and put away cbemicals. T o alleviate the problem, the following method was employed and later extended to the storage of glassware, equipment, and instruments. Each area in the cabinet was assigned a code number, the number was prominently posted in that area, and a map of the cabinet with the areas numbered was posted on the cabinet. As each bottle was placed in its appropriate cabinet location. a code number for that storae locntion was affixed to the bottle and the code number waswrit,dn on its file card Volume 63
Number 10
October 1986
887
which was filed alphabetically. Thus thelocation code of any chemical (to find the bottle or return i t to the cahinet) can be quickly found on its alphabetized file card. Now with extra storage space available, i t was possible to remove the boxes of glassware from the tops of the cabinets for storage inside the cabinets. A separate card file was set up for a glassware inventory. Again the cabinet areas were assigned location code numbers which were placed on the cabinets, the glassware boxes and the appropriate glassware file cards. As with the chemicals, a map of the cabinets with areas numbered was posted on the cahinets. A map of the stockroom indicating each cahinet and its range of location code numbers was posted on the stockroom wall. T o complete the reorganization of the stockroom and lab, two more alphabetical file inventories are now in progress. One will include equipment such as burners, stoppers, meter sticks, and rubber tubing. The other inventory will be for instruments like spectrophotometers, clocks, and pH meters. Some equipment and instruments are stored in drawers and cabinets in the lab rather than in thestockroom, somaps and code numbers are being made for the whole lab area. Eventually there will be four card file drawers arranged alphabetically for chemicals, glassware, equipment, and instrument inventories. Each card will include a location code number, as well as dated quantity-on-hand information, and hazard warnings for chemicals. Each local area, cabinet, or set of drawers, will have location code numbers displayed, and a local map attached. There will also he a map of the whole lab area and a stockroom map posted on the wall. Inventory file cards should he kept up to date. Due t o time
888
Journal of Chemical Education
constraints it is not always possible t o update the file card every time something is put away, so alist is postedin the lab on which a record of the amount of chemical used or breakage as i t happens can he jotted down. This record can he used t o uodate the file cards when time nermits. A reorder list is kept with the card files and as the cards arc updated, reorder information isadded to the list. Plansare now heine made to computerize all this information using a spreadsheet. The time and effort put into a disposal, labeling, and storage system is well worthwhile (13,14).Our chemistry lah and stockroom are safer places to work, and it is easier t o find everything as well as control inventory. Anyone else attempting such an organization effort can orofit from the mistakes mentioned above. With an organized plan of attack, a similar effort can probably be accomplished in much less time. Please send any questions or suggestions to the author. ~~
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Literature Cited (11 "Flinn ScientiFlcCstalog"; Flinn Scientific: Batavia, lL.1983. (21 Steere,N."HandbaokofLaboratorySsfety";ChemicslRubber:Cleveland,OH.1983. (31 Nagel. M.C.J.Chpm.Edue. 1981.58,1018. (41 Young. J. A.J . Chom.Educ. 1983,60,490. 151 Allen, R.0.J. Chem.Educ. 1983.60, AS1. (61 Fiseher,K.E.J.Cham.Educ. 1985,62,A118. (71 Srnith,R. W. J. Chem. Educ. 1980.57. A85. (31 Taylor, P. J. J. Chem. Edue. 1978.55. A439. (91 "325M Fire Hazards Properties of Flammable Liquids. Gases, and Volatile Solids"; Natl. FireProteclion Aasoc.: Quiney, MA. 1984. (10) Young,J.A.J.Chem. Edur. 1933,60,A141. (111 Gerlovieh, J. A. J . Chem. Educ. 1984.61.837. I121 Yohe, B.; Dunklebewer, C. J C h ~ mEdur. . 1985,62,876. (131 Nagel. M.C. J . Cham. Edue. 1982,59,156. (141 Pipitone,D. A.;Hedbew,D.H. J . ChemEduc. 1982,59,A159.
