The correct answer is "whenever possible." And one's hood being too cluttered to work in is not a valid excuse... n-hexane is a neurotoxin. See this MMWR issue from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5045a3.htm As for other organic solvents see this NIOSH article: http://www.ncchem.com/niosh.htm Print these out, set your yellow hilighter to work and give the copies to those who think it's OK to work outside the hood. If all else fails, send those hilighted articles to your campus legal office and ask the same question you just asked us. Then you'll suddenly have a reason they can't argue with ;-) Best regards, Rob Toreki >I am at a small college and trying to give good advice to researchers >about when work needs to be done in the hood. The chemicals we work >with typically have PEL or similar values listed on the MSDS but, of >course, I have no meter to measure those levels in the lab. Lacking >such hard data, is there any reasonable standard I can offer bench >chemists to help them decide when work needs to move to the hood? I >currently have researchers doing column chromatography with hexanes and >ethyl acetate on the bench outside the hood. When I express concerns, >the response starts "when I was in grad school, we did it this way . . >.." I did lots of things in grad school that I couldn't defend then, let >alone now. Without the ability to measure (or estimate?) levels, I >can't do much to change behavior. > >Thanks, >Gail -- ===================================================== Safety Emporium - Lab & Safety Supplies featuring brand names you know and trust. Visit us at http://www.SafetyEmporium.com esales**At_Symbol_Here**safetyemporium.com or toll-free: (866) 326-5412 Fax: (859) 523-0606, 4905 Waynes Blvd, Lexington, KY 40513-1469
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