Demystify: 

>I think the issue may be more the materials of construction or your handling practices.
>
The problem I have consistently seen when chemical storage cabinets start to decay is long term (i.e. decades) of storage of volatile chemicals in the cabinets. I once asked a Sigma/Aldrich representative how long they expected a chemical cap to contain volatile contents in their containers. Their response was 'about a year'. In my experience, academic chemists are routinely skeptical that their reagents have a limited shelf life, but they also tend to buy new chemicals for their research rather than use legacy materials of unknown age and quality.

The point is that inventory control and culling is likely to be a cheaper approach to managing chemical libraries than ventilating storage cabinets in accordance with applicable building codes. It's important to remember, though, that a useful library requires a librarian managing the collection. Fortunately, there are many different software platforms of different scales and levels of detail available to support this oversight of the chemical library.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

---
For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas

Previous post   |  Top of Page   |   Next post