>Our property management group asked me recently if there is a minimum temperature that a chemical stores room must be to ensure safe storage.

Facility operators have a tendency to ask these broad questions which have many detailed answers.

I have used / currently use unheated chemical storage spaces in cold climates, but these spaces have served chemical waste needs rather than reagents. For our purposes, as long as the aqueous wastes didn't freeze and escape their containers, we didn't worry about minimum temperatures.

If I was storing reagents in these spaces, it would make sense to keep them above 0 degrees C to avoid excessive humidity condensation on and in the containers (I have seen chemicals stored in cold rooms that suffered from this problem, leading to degradation of labels and caps; those cold rooms stank). But this would be for quality control reasons more than for safe storage concerns.

Good luck!

- Ralph

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

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