How do you manage and store the chemical substances in your laboratory?
Do you arrange them in Alphabetical order only for convenient browsing?
Can you imagine what will happen if the strong hydrazine is placed next to the strong hydrogen peroxide when you arrange them in Alphabetical order? You will see a dangerous situation due to an intense reaction between both materials. So how do we store the chemical substances to prevent a safe accident?
Universities and companies have a safety manual by themselves based on basic rules and government regulations, so they recommend managing and discarding the chemical substances through the manual. There might be differences in storage capacity or detail method depends on the situation of each company, but we would like to introduce basic rules on how to keep and manage the chemical substances safely in your lab.
1. Sort according to the assortment of hazardous material classifications.
The first thing to store the chemical substance in a safe is to check the compatibility of them each other and place together the compatible substances.
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1 |
2-1 |
2-2 |
3 |
4 |
5-1 |
5-2 |
6 |
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Inflammable |
Inorganic acid |
Organic acid |
Alkaline |
Oxidizer |
Inorganic toxic substance |
Organic toxic substance |
Air/Water reactivity |
| 1 |
Inflammable |
O |
X |
O |
X |
X |
X |
O |
X |
| 2-1 |
Inorganic acid |
X |
O |
X |
X |
O |
X |
X |
X |
| 2-2 |
Organic acid |
O |
X |
O |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
| 3 |
Alkaline |
X |
X |
X |
O |
O |
O |
X |
X |
| 4 |
Oxidizer |
X |
O |
X |
O |
O |
O |
X |
X |
| 5-1 |
Inorganic toxic substance |
X |
X |
X |
O |
O |
O |
X |
X |
| 5-2 |
Organic toxic substance |
O |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
O |
X |
| 6 |
Air/Water reactivity |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
O |
Refer to the above table, try to classify the chemicals you want to store. After done, check the compatibility of each other through the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) to store the compatible substances together.
2. Store the chemicals as small quantities as possible in a lab.
The Industrial Safety Management Act recommends storing the allowed quantities only in the lab. Keep as small quantities as possible according to the allowed, and the exceed quantities should be kept in a dedicated room.
3. Attach a label including the clear information.
Make a label with the clear information, such as what substances stored and when it has been stored, the expired date to use also. If the label is faded or not attached to the container, don’t use it arbitrarily. Disposal is recommended.
4. Make a list of storage substances and do a constant inspection.
Even you arrange the chemicals as the above, they might pass the disposal date and be accumulated in the storage cabinet if you don’t carry out the constant inspection. So a regular inspection is a good way to do a disposal properly. During the regular inspection, you can check the packaging status of the container and recognize if there is some reaction of stored substances, so that makes updating the list of storage substances.
5. Use a dedicated cabinet
Lab Companion provides 2kinds of Safety Storage Cabinet – Fire Safety Storage Cabinet and Acid/Corrosive Cabinet.
Fire Safety Storage Cabinet
SC3-F Fire Safety Storage Cabinet is a dedicated cabinet for the storage of flammables. SC3-F has certified by EN 14770-1, it keeps the stored substances safely in case of fire until the verified time. The interior material has chemical resistance, and the gases which are formed from the stored substances are discharged through the vent outlet on the top of the cabinet. In case of fire, the vent outlet is closed automatically to prevent flowing the heating inside of the cabinet.
>> More Information
Acid / Corrosive Cabinet
SC-C Acid/Corrosive Cabinet has a smart ventilation system optimized for the storage of acid/base substances. The interior material is Polypropylene has a strong corrosion resistance, and the patented ventilation system is that each internal space has a vent outlet independently to discharge the formed gases without any mixture. So you can separately store chemical substances that have different properties in one cabinet.
>> More Information
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[ Test of separate storage using a smoke bomb. ]
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