Nancy,
If you’re putting locks on student
drawers/lockers, do not buy cheap ones. We’ve spent a huge
amount of time (= money, of course) fixing cheap locks in
our ‘new’ building (2005).
If you can find a space for students
to store lab coats and goggles in/near the labs, they will
have fewer days when they forget to bring them.
Sheila
_____________
Sheila M. Kennedy, CHO
Safety Coordinator | Teaching
Laboratories
Chemistry & Biochemistry
|University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr. | La Jolla, CA
92093-0303
Office: (858) 534-0221 | Fax: (858)
534-7687
s1kennedy**At_Symbol_Here**ucsd.edu | http://www-chem.ucsd.edu
From:
DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU]
On Behalf Of Cathleen Eldridge
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2012 12:06 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Advice on our new science
building
This is not one of your questions, but
if there’s still time, try to add hallway storage/cubbies
for student drinks, snacks or other foodstuff you don’t want
in the lab. Satellite Accumulation Areas for waste
chemicals often get left out of the design, along with room
for regular recycling containers. Good luck!
Cathleen M. Eldridge
Associate Director
Environmental Health & Safety
SUNY Plattsburgh
101 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
Office: 518-564-5009
Fax: 518-564-5082
From:
DCHAS-L Discussion List
[mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU]
On Behalf Of Richardson, Nancy A
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2012 2:35 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Advice on our new science building
We are building
a new building that will house health sciences, physics,
biology, and chemistry. It will be mainly a teaching building
with classrooms, teaching labs and faculty office areas. We
may have a few small research areas here and there. We
chemists will have the top(fourth) floor for our 6-8 teaching
labs, chemical storage, and office area along with one or two
small seminar/meeting rooms for around 24 people. I teach as
well as do safety and so I am trying to give the best safety
advice in the design as I can, but feel rather inadequate for
the task. I wonder if others have some advice to offer. As
we design the layouts for the rooms, certain particular
questions have arisen and I was wondering what others’
experiences have been with some of the following aspects or
other aspects that have not surfaced yet:
1.
Are ductless hoods a reasonable
choice for some/all teaching labs? I am most concerned with
the great variety of materials that the organic labs use.
They tend to do different experiments every time through the
course and I think it might be hard to ensure the filters were
always adequate. Also, other teaching labs get used for
research(that uses all different materials) from time to time
when lab classes are not meeting. What opinion could any of
you offer on ductless hoods? Are they ultimately cost
effective? Are they maintenance intensive?
2.
In planning teaching labs, there
is a question as to whether all the students in a lab need to
be under a hood for distillations of various types or working
with other materials such as silica. The introductory
chemistry class lab distills mouth wash in one experiment.
Does the ethanol concentration in the air pose any actual risk
or the menthol? Is there some law that says exactly what
should be done under a hood? Could hexane, methylene
chloride, and ether be outside of a hood, for example, with
enough general room ventilation and how could these be
monitored to ensure safe levels in the listed standards for
some chemicals? The appendix in 1910.1450 suggests 2.5 ft
person for hood space, but is this done in teaching lab design
when one setup is shared by two or maybe four students? Would
hood bonnets be a good alternative for some things?
3.
Are there some chemically
resistant AV projectors that could be placed into labs. We
had wanted projectors in labs before, but since other
metal(locks, fume hoods, the safety shower) in the labs had
become corroded it was thought that projectors would not stand
up to chemical exposure? Or with a good ventilation design
will this not be an issue?
4.
What about storing materials in
labs? Now we have a good bit of storage within the teaching
labs in our old building because there is no other place for
it, but from what I can tell, there are limits on in lab
storage of flammables even if there are flammable cabinets.
5.
What is the practice with regard
to receiving chemicals and transporting them to upper floors?
I am especially concerned about gas cylinders.
Thank you in
advance for any opinions and experience anyone has on these
topics and with these issues and perhaps other building design
issues.
Nancy
