Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 10:37:06 -0400
Reply-To: g.c.walton**At_Symbol_Here**reactives.com
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: George Walton <g.c.walton**At_Symbol_Here**REACTIVES.COM>
Organization: Reactives Managment Corporation
Subject: Re: Abbreviations
In-Reply-To: <y2l2317fc9b1004021253zbbf43d04ke3b81df7f0d375b3**At_Symbol_Here**mail.gmail.com>

During a hazardous waste clean-up/ pick-up at a federal lab with a
significant number of personnel whose native language was not American
English, a screw top container  was found with the hand-written label
"plastique."  The material was originally placed with nitrated aromatics 
and
nitro-amines (PA, oops -- picric acid; RDX, -- oops again, 
cyclotrimethylene
trinitramine).  After some investigation, it was determined to be 
modeling
clay, which, in some languages, is sold under the trade name Plastique.

The points are (1) materials need to be identified so that everyone 
knows
what they are and (2) inventories should be updated more often that the
census.

George Walton
757-436-1033
-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of
Andrew Gross
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 3:53 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Abbreviations

I havent seen anyone bring up almost standard abbriviations such as
MeOH, EtOH, PtOH (phenoxytol for those in food, cosmetics etc).
Personally I think those are excessive, they are so close to periodic
table "lingo" that I don't see the shortcut going from CH3OH to MeOH.

On Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Eric Clark  
wrote:
> Good point, Bradley. =A0The firemen who inspected the lab recently 
wanted an
NFPA fire diamond with "0,0,0" on the 600-gallon DI water tank, I can
understand that. =A0Of course they don't care about the DI wash bottles 
on the
bench (although they did notice the one that was labeled HIV - for the 
lab
section).
> Our Chemical Hygiene Plan has a list of lab-specific acronyms and
abbreviations right up front. =A0But that still doesn't really solve 
that
shorthand labeling problem we see from time to time. =A0[But then 
everyone in
the lab seems to know what a container that's labeled "128" is, right? 
(it's
vesphene diluted down 1:128).] =A0Thanks to this discussion string, I'll 
be
creating reagent-specific label templates for things we make up all the 
time
- like the profiled hazardous waste streams. =A0It's a complex field 
folks.
=A0(Hope you don't mind that I used a few undefined acronyms.)
> =A0http://www.acronymslist.com/
> Top Five:
> Chemistry Acronyms (14383)
> NASA Acronyms (8940)
> Uncategorized Acronyms (5754)
> Atmospheric Research Center Acronyms (4622)
> Text Language Acronyms And Abbreviations (1855)
>
> Eric Clark, MS, CCHO, CHMM
> Safety & Compliance Officer
> Los Angeles County Public Health Lab
>
>>>> Bradley Harris  4/2/2010 8:15 AM >>>
> Using Abbreviations should be dependent on several items, including 
hazard
levels, and the amount of chemical. =A0For example, a small container 
with non
hazardous chemicals used in a small laboratory could have an 
abbreviation.
=A0If there is a gallon, or 55 gallons of the same chemical the 
container
should have a full label.
>
> teaching abbreviations in school seems to undermine the information 
given
from the full chemical name.
>
> Brad
>
>
> On Apr 1, 2010, at 9:20 PM, Alan Hall wrote:
>
>> Use simple chemical formulas: =A0NaCN, KCN, Ca2Cn2, etc, I won't 
argue: use
abbreviations that might kill somebody, BAD idea.
>>
>> Whoever has to walk into a HAZMAT incident doesn't have time to look 
for
a bunch of abbreviations. =A0Lives may be on the line. =A0The AHLS 
Course
stresses some of that. =A0Those who have not worn Level A or Level B 
might
consider that others have and will continue to due so. =A0Bad labels, 
some of
us might be invoked, whether needed or not.
>>
>> Alan
>> ahalltoxic**At_Symbol_Here**msn.com
>>
>>
>> Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 19:50:48 -0400
>> From: JAKSAFETY**At_Symbol_Here**AOL.COM
>> Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Abbreviations
>> To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
>>
>> One of the major problems is going to be distinguishing TLAs from 
FLAs. =A0
... Jim
>>
>> **********************************
>> James A. Kaufman, Ph.D.
>> Kaufman & Associates
>> 101 Oak Street, Wellesley, MA 02482
>> 508-574-6264 Fax: 508-647-0062
>> Res: 781-237-1335
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

Previous post   |  Top of Page   |   Next post



The content of this page reflects the personal opinion(s) of the author(s) only, not the American Chemical Society, ILPI, Safety Emporium, or any other party. Use of any information on this page is at the reader's own risk. Unauthorized reproduction of these materials is prohibited. Send questions/comments about the archive to secretary@dchas.org.
The maintenance and hosting of the DCHAS-L archive is provided through the generous support of Safety Emporium.