Please let me know if you have any additional question regarding the aspirators, and will be happy to help you.
Tilak
Tilak Chandra, Ph.D.
Chemical Safety Specialist
EH&S; Chemical Safety
30 East Campus Mall
Madison, WI 53715
Ph. 608-890-0255
Cell: 608-622-9761
“There’s simply never an adequate excuse for not wearing safety glasses in the laboratory at all times” Dr. K .Barry Sharpless, Nobel Prize Laureate 2001.
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http://www.ehs.wisc.edu/chem-thechemicalsafetymechanism.htm
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Kim Auletta
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2012 7:27 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] water aspirator - vacuum question
I need the expert opinion of chemists working with 21st century ideas!
I was in a lab yesterday in Chemistry that is run by a PI older than the hills. His lab is filtering powders and solvents using the sink aspirator. All of the tygon tubing (both sides of vacuum & flasks) is discolored and shows signs of deterioration. They say this tubing is only looking that way because its really old. There was a flask for trap set up between the sample & the sink. I tried to explain that this set up may be allowing solvents to go into the water & down the drain. They tried in their best "I'm the seasoned PhD Chemist and you're not" voices to tell me it was ok and that there was no other way to do this and that everyone, including in industry, does it this way. Really?
So - my questions to all of you enlightened chemists:
1. Do you still use the sink aspirator/vacuum?
2. If so, what kind of trap do you use to prevent solvent or other hazardous material (liquid & vapor) from going down the drain?
3. If you no longer use this filter/vacuum set up, what do you use?
thanks for your help!
Kim Gates Auletta
Laboratory Safety Specialist
Environmental Health & Safety
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-6200
631-632-3032
FAX: 631-632-9683
EH&S Web site: http://www.stonybrook.edu/ehs/lab/
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