My colleague is seeking advice as to whether the following procedure was a safe way to deal with a fume hood failure.

Here is his d escription of what occurred.  I have a picture (96 kb) of the initial setup if needed and the list server can handle.

A 48 hour reflux to extract 1 9 g of powdered rocky material in 68 g of 95% formic acid was needed.     A 250 mL single neck (14/20 joint) round bottom flask on an el ectric heating mantle with a Liebig Condenser in a fume hood.  When he at was applied, a glass beaker was inverted and placed over the top of the condenser to prevent any particulates from contaminating the system (withou t risking a pressurization).  One day into the extraction the building fume hood fans stopped.  The lab manager decided that terminating the procedure would compromise the rare meteorite sample and elected to procee d as follows.  He added a second identical water cooled Liebig Condens er above the first, closed the hood sash, and evacuated the 17,600 ft^3 lab (with proper warning signs on all the doors) until the completion of the e xperiment on the following day. 

Was this an unsafe action?

Thank you for your comments.

Regina Cody

*********************** **

Regina Cody

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Code 691

Greenbelt, MD 20771

Office: 301-286-3782

Fax: 301-286-1683

Email address: regina.cody**At_Symbol_Here**nasa.gov

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