From:
Monona Rossol <0000030664c37427-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject:
Re: [DCHAS-L] Specimen Storage in Ethanol
Date:
Dec 11, 2024 20:28 UTC
Reply-To:
ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID:
<1327215453.1259712.1733948885723**At_Symbol_Here**mail.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To:
<PH0PR08MB6613BCA0C227299E1339AA2CF83E2**At_Symbol_Here**PH0PR08MB6613.namprd08.prod.outlook.com>
They may not need to be in a flammable cabinet, but they need elaborate fire precautions. In the 1990s I did a consult at the British Museum and got to see the large room where the alcohol and glass containers full of specimens that Darwin brought back from the Galapagos were stored. They had sprinkered the room about every 4 feet. Every now and again, one of those old glass cylinders just gives out and 90+% ethanol spills all over.
And I was the safety consultant at the Field Museum in Chicago for 11 years and similar sprinklers were set up in their huge wet collection rooms. Everything in that vast area was metal and all the shelving was perforated to allow and solvent to make it to the floor where special drains would collect it. It is necessary to consider what will happen if there was a bomb or and earthquake. There were special fire consultants that worked all that out. And in addition to national standards such as the NFPA flammable liquids standards, there were also are local regulations that may apply.
Monona
Hello everyone,
I was curious of your thoughts and practices regarding the storage of specimens in an ethanol solution. Do you then store them in a fire cabinet due to the ethanol? We currently have some specimens stored in a regular cabinet in an Ecology lab space. They have
always been stored this way, but I recently became the Chemical Resource Officer and want to make sure things are being treated correctly. This topic, however, seems to have mixed answers in the research I've found. Most items say to store in a cool, dark
place but do not mention it needing to be in a fire cabinet. Any thoughts or guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Charish Dean (she/her)
Chemical Resource Manager
SG14, 410-778-7297
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