During a hazardous waste clean-up/ pick-up at a federal lab with a significant number of personnel whose native language was not American English, a screw top container was found with the hand-written label "plastique." The material was originally placed with nitrated aromatics and nitro-amines (PA, oops -- picric acid; RDX, -- oops again, cyclotrimethylene trinitramine). After some investigation, it was determined to be modeling clay, which, in some languages, is sold under the trade name Plastique. The points are (1) materials need to be identified so that everyone knows what they are and (2) inventories should be updated more often that the census. George Walton 757-436-1033 -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Andrew Gross Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 3:53 PM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Abbreviations I havent seen anyone bring up almost standard abbriviations such as MeOH, EtOH, PtOH (phenoxytol for those in food, cosmetics etc). Personally I think those are excessive, they are so close to periodic table "lingo" that I don't see the shortcut going from CH3OH to MeOH. On Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Eric Clarkwrote: > Good point, Bradley. =A0The firemen who inspected the lab recently wanted an NFPA fire diamond with "0,0,0" on the 600-gallon DI water tank, I can understand that. =A0Of course they don't care about the DI wash bottles on the bench (although they did notice the one that was labeled HIV - for the lab section). > Our Chemical Hygiene Plan has a list of lab-specific acronyms and abbreviations right up front. =A0But that still doesn't really solve that shorthand labeling problem we see from time to time. =A0[But then everyone in the lab seems to know what a container that's labeled "128" is, right? (it's vesphene diluted down 1:128).] =A0Thanks to this discussion string, I'll be creating reagent-specific label templates for things we make up all the time - like the profiled hazardous waste streams. =A0It's a complex field folks. =A0(Hope you don't mind that I used a few undefined acronyms.) > =A0http://www.acronymslist.com/ > Top Five: > Chemistry Acronyms (14383) > NASA Acronyms (8940) > Uncategorized Acronyms (5754) > Atmospheric Research Center Acronyms (4622) > Text Language Acronyms And Abbreviations (1855) > > Eric Clark, MS, CCHO, CHMM > Safety & Compliance Officer > Los Angeles County Public Health Lab > >>>> Bradley Harris 4/2/2010 8:15 AM >>> > Using Abbreviations should be dependent on several items, including hazard levels, and the amount of chemical. =A0For example, a small container with non hazardous chemicals used in a small laboratory could have an abbreviation. =A0If there is a gallon, or 55 gallons of the same chemical the container should have a full label. > > teaching abbreviations in school seems to undermine the information given from the full chemical name. > > Brad > > > On Apr 1, 2010, at 9:20 PM, Alan Hall wrote: > >> Use simple chemical formulas: =A0NaCN, KCN, Ca2Cn2, etc, I won't argue: use abbreviations that might kill somebody, BAD idea. >> >> Whoever has to walk into a HAZMAT incident doesn't have time to look for a bunch of abbreviations. =A0Lives may be on the line. =A0The AHLS Course stresses some of that. =A0Those who have not worn Level A or Level B might consider that others have and will continue to due so. =A0Bad labels, some of us might be invoked, whether needed or not. >> >> Alan >> ahalltoxic**At_Symbol_Here**msn.com >> >> >> Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 19:50:48 -0400 >> From: JAKSAFETY**At_Symbol_Here**AOL.COM >> Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Abbreviations >> To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU >> >> One of the major problems is going to be distinguishing TLAs from FLAs. =A0 ... Jim >> >> ********************************** >> James A. Kaufman, Ph.D. >> Kaufman & Associates >> 101 Oak Street, Wellesley, MA 02482 >> 508-574-6264 Fax: 508-647-0062 >> Res: 781-237-1335 >> >> >> >> >
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