Sounds like your Procurement Director is now also an expert on industrial hygiene and safety.  If the “expert” is jumping to these conclusions I recommend sitting back, documenting occupational exposure information in your organic chemistry labs, including use, fume hood exhaust effectiveness, etc. 

Then educate them.

Good Afternoon All-

   Hope all is well. So, our Procurement director (Now an expert in chemistry) is concerned on the use of DCM because a panel discussion came across an Insurance discussion email. Please see below. I would appreciate any information and what other Institutions are doing. We are following the SDS and other proper protocols (NIOSH exposure limits and skin protection). Also, it is mainly used in our Organic chemistry labs.

Kind Regards,

Aniello Tambasco

Lab Manager

Wilkes University

84 W. South St.

Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766

570-408-3218

Hello Everyone,

I have a member input request for the group on Methylene Chloride (dichloromethane)-

“The EPA will be banning methylene chloride (dichloromethane) and I was wondering if any of the labs currently using it will plan on either requesting use of alternatives (ethyl acetate, MTBE, toluene, 2-MeTHF) or will start to perform testing to ensure there is no over exposures?”

Additional reference - Risk Management for Methylene Chloride | US EPA

Thank you,

Hannah Reed 
Risk Consultant

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