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Kim,
It's also worth mentioning that the now infamous UCLA Grad Student Death was caused by Butyl lithium mishandling. That case did involve the use of butyl lithium in a syringe. Although the details of that case are pretty unclear, overfilling of a syringe is one possible explanation for what happened. I would take extra precautions given the publicity that particular compound has gotten.
Cheers,
Mike
--
Michael D. Hurwitz
Renegade Chemistry Consulting
RenegadeChemist**At_Symbol_Here**Gmail.com
Freelance Chemistry on Demand
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of George D. McCallion
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2013 8:52 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Butyl Lithium & syringe safety
The URL for the DCHAS-L archive is
http://www.dchas.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=90
search away! A lot of information on this topic is there.
-george
From: "Kim Gates" <kim.gates**At_Symbol_Here**STONYBROOK.EDU>
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2013 9:52:50 AM
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Butyl Lithium & syringe safety
I have a question from our Chem dept about nButyl Lithium & syringes after I forwarded them the CEN blog on safer syringes. http://cenblog.org/the-safety-zone/2013/02/engineering-safer-syringes/
The lab's SOP calls for not reusing their syringes & only filling them 50%. I asked them to write in more clearly that they are to dispose in sharps container.
The questions I'm hoping any of you with similar hazards can help with:
1. Is there enough residual material in the syringe that it could be hazardous?
2. Should there be a sharps container stored in the fume hood for the exclusive use of these syringes (avoiding incompatible material that may be left in the syringe)
3. If not a sharps container, what/how does your labs dispose of these syringes?
thanks!
Kim Gates
Laboratory Safety Specialist
Environmental Health & Safety
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-6200
Kim.Gates**At_Symbol_Here**stonybrook.edu
631-632-3032
FAX: 631-632-9683
EH&S Web site: http://www.stonybrook.edu/ehs/lab/
Please note my name and email have changed.