JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
SAFETY PRACTICES AND THE CHEMISTRY STOCKROOM1 DOUGLAS G. NICHOLSON Fisher Scientific Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
M u c a has been written concerning the topic "safety" and its various ramifications. I t is generally accepted that industrial plant and laboratory safety programs are more extensive than those in evidence at academic institutions. Regardless of the fact that "we know better," our academic research workers and students continue to be involved in accidents which could and should have been avoided by the establishment and enforcement of proper safety practices and procedures. In the event of an accident in an academic laboratory the instructor in charge invariably comes to the stockroom for "a chair," "a telephone," "an extra piece of tape," or other item either closely or remotely associated with the accident. In other words, the stock room attendant is generally considered as the "main line of defense" when accidents occur in the laboratory. During the course of visiting staff members and stockroom ~ersonnelat several of our collezes - and universities, information concerning interesting safety policies and practices has been obtained. It is believed that a material increase in efficiency and operation of safety programs would result if certain of these were incorporated in the safety programs of other academic institutions. ~
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'Presented at the 122nd Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Atlantic City, New Jersey, September, 1952.
The stockroom superintendent at many schools is often charged with the maintenance of emergency cabinets as well as issuing and filing "accident report" forms. I n an effort to insure the use of a pay telephone booth. located in the hallway of a building, one school makes a common practice of including a five-cent piece as an essential piece of emergency cabinet "equipment." Such a practice has proved very timely in the event of after-hour accidents when offices containing outside phones were not open. All too often one may have paper money, a quarter or a fifty-cent piece in his pocket, but would be unable to call a doctor, hospital, taxi, or fire department in the event of an emergency. Certain of our schools require that more than one student he present in any laboratory if working after regular hours. In this manner it is believed one individual would be available to assist another in the event of an accident. Certain equipment normally stocked in emergency cabinets is sometimes of value to students and staff members in their research programs. Scissors, forceps, and adhesive tape fall into this class of materials. At times certain personnel tend to use such items and "fail" to return them on completing their use. In an effort to eliminate such serious loss of important firstaid equipment, one school has virtually eliminated the
APRIL, 1953
number of keys for emergency cabinets which are issued to staff members. The bolt on the lock of each cabinet closes behind a microscope slide which is recessed in the framework of the cabinet. In the event of an emergency requiring the use of the materials in a cabinet, one merely breaks the microscope slide using a small hammer attached to each cabinet with a light chain. After breaking the glass slide, the door of the cabinet opens readily. Within each cabinet is a pad of forms one of which must be filled out covering the time and date of opening the case, as well as the names of individuals concerned in and treating the accident case. Thus undue breakage of microscope slides is reduced to a minimum. The broken slide is promptly replaced and the materials used from the cabinet are replenished. Several schools maintain "accident report forms" in their chemistry department stockrooms. One must he completed for each accident which takes place in the department laboratory. Many of these forms are detailed in nature and include information relative to date, and time of accident, as well as details of its nature. Names of individuals giving first aid as well as those in charge of the laboratory are also requested. A description of the treatment is also desired. Such reports are generally filed with the stockroom attendant or the director of the laboratory as promptly as possible. Several of our schools have pharmacy-school graduates supervising their stockrooms, while others use pharmacy graduates for the preparation of reagent solutions and the filling of laboratory reagent bottles. Although the task of bottle filling is considered as routine, severe damage to experiments, research programs, and even to personnel can result if the wrong solution is placed in a bottle on a reagent shelf. The maintenance of a complete stock of first-aid equipment in chemistry department emergency cabinets is a duty often assigned to storeroom personnel. One of our larger schools maintains a loose-leaf notebook record on each such cabinet which is "serviced." One page of this record is assigned to each cabinet. Spaces are provided to indicate date and time of inspection, together with the record of missing items as well as those which are added. All such cabinets are checked at least once a week, with certain units (in popular laboratories) checked a t more frequent intervals. The master record book of such inspections is maintained in the office of the superintendent of chemical stocks. Another school which does not maintain a record of inspection of emergency cabinets has one of its storeroom attendants check every unit daily. (It requires approximately three hours' time to cover 35 cabinets.) New graduate assistants in chemistry departments at many schools usually have an "orientation meeting"
duriug their early days on a campus. One important phase of such an orientation is a description of the safety and first-aid practices in operation. The storeroom superintendent, or one of his assistants, is generally called upon to outline this topic as well as others with which he is directly concerned. A fern of our schools require the use of safety glasses by all personnel using any of their laboratories. These glasses may be purchased outright through the department stockrooms, or may be obtained on a temporary (annual) loan by signing the proper memoranda at departmental stockrooms. At the end of each school year the stockroom personnel have the responsibility of checking-in these temporarily loaned glasses, as wellas reconditioning them for issue the following year. This task includes a disinfecting procedure as well as proper storage; it entails considerable additional work at an extremely busy stockroom period. Another observation worth mentioning is that the larger stockroom is not always more safety-minded than the smaller unit. I have seen a very small storeroom containing only four drums of volatile solvents in the "solvent portion." Each drum containing a faucet for withdrawing its contents was carefully grounded by attaching a lead wire and battery clip to a near-by water pipe. Such a simple, inexpensive measure virtually eliminates the danger of ignition of flammable solvents from static electrical charges. Safety literature, technical as well as commercial, invariably finds i t way to the desk of the stockroom superintendent. He often serves as a "filter center" for new ideas and items which are made available. Thus he is often responsible for initiating the use or suggesting the adoption of such materials as "safety supports" for cylinders of compressed gases, or newstyle portable fire extinguishers, as well as newly developed practices for first-aid treatment, throughout the entire department. Thus the adoption of new safety equipment or first-aid practices frequently depends upon the interest and initiative of the stockroom superintendent. In spite of his many duties and responsibilities, the chemistry department stockroom superintendent is frequently one of the key individuals associated with safety practices and first-aid procedures in use in our academic institutions. He is doing a commendable job and exhibiting initiative and originality in many institutions. Observations indicate that the extent and degree of "safety mindedness" evident in many schools vary throughout a considerable range. It is believed that many schools could profit by learning of safety practices being used at others. Safety is a topic which we can continually improve upon, and no matter h0.w successful we are or how perfect our current record, we can always make it even better.
