Pat,

It may indeed be challenging to come up with names of chlorinated solvents that can react with flammables.  While many chlorinated solvents are not flammable and do not have to be stored with your flammables I'm not aware of any chemical incompatibility issues that necessitate storing them separately.  Yes it is true that chlorinated solvents can release nasty gases when exposed to extreme heat, UV, or reactive substances but not from storing with flammables.

Separation does make sense when you get into the hazardous waste end of things but that's mostly a money issue.  In our institution we are extra careful to keep our waste chlorinated solvents separate from the rest because of the extra pollution controls required to incinerate them. Roughly, it can cost up to 5X as much to incinerate halogenated solvents as it does to burn ordinary hydrocarbons.

Hope this helps.

W.

Wayne Wood | Associate Director, University Safety (EHS) - Directeur Adjoint, Direction de la prévention (SSE), Services universitaires | McGill University | 3610 McTavish Street, 4th floor | Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 1Y2 | Tel: (514) 398-2391 | Fax: (514) 398-8047
-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Peifer, Patricia
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 8:56 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Storage of Chlorinated Solvents and Flammables

All,

I have asked our staff to store chlorinated solvents separately from flammable substances.  I know that this is generally good practice, but I also read that some chlorinated solvents can react with some flammables to produce phosgene, and perhaps other toxic gases as well.  This made some sense to me since I know chlorinated solvents can produce these gases when exposed to heat or UV.

I am being challenged on this and asked to produce the names of flammables that will react with chlorinated solvents upon contact to produce dangerous gases.  Does anyone have information on this?   Are there other compelling reasons not to store chlorinated solvents with flammables?

Thanks,
Pat
Pat Peifer, CHO
Safety and Chemical Hygiene Specialist
West Pharmaceutical Services
101 Gordon Drive
Lionville,  PA  19341
Find West on Twitter  and LinkedIn.

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