On the other hand, if you have a spill with serious air contamination escaping the room where it happened, or that presents a secondary hazard (like a fire any minute because there is a gallon of diethyl ether spreading across the floor), you don't want your folks trained to NOT evacuate the building (i.e., to be afraid to sound the alarm).   As is so often the case, the correct answer is:  "It depends."    Perhaps the chart should tell people what to do/who to call for a spill that doesn't present an imminent hazard and what to do for one that does, and allow the reader to decide what's right for their "it depends" moment.

---

Keep in mind - when the FD shows up, they take over - it is now their jurisdiction and you have not more control.  So very small things you could have handled, become long in solving as they go thru their protocols.

Teresa Arnold



Biology-Chemistry Lab Coordinator

tarnold**At_Symbol_Here**georgefox.edu
503-554-2724
Fax: 503-554-3884

414 N. Meridian St.  #6144
Newberg, OR  97132

Current Board Member of the National Association of Scientific Materials Managers

On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 2:22 PM, Strode, Kyle <strode**At_Symbol_Here**carroll.edu> wrote:

The Risk Management Committee at my college is revamping our "Emergency Protocol Guide" for campus.  Regarding chemical spills, they have asked me what should be on the chart when there is a chemical spill.

 

One member suggested that when a large spill occurs, the person should pull the fire alarm. Even for a pretty nasty spill, I am uncomfortable with that recommendation.  I am worried that

• the fire department will be summoned for moderate-large spills of innocuous chemicals
• the FD will come for very small spills of hazardous chemicals, when the actual danger is pretty low

As a relatively new CHO, it seems to me that for chemical spills, the protocol would be to have a person call the FD if a chemistry professor determines that it is necessary.

 

In my teaching career, we have only had one nasty spill (boiling nitric acid spilled out of the hood and everyone started choking), which we mitigated by evacuating the lab and waiting until the lab ventilation system cleaned most of it out. Then we went in and mopped it up with bicarbonate.

 

I am interested in your thoughts, advice or experiences.

 

Kyle

 

 

Kyle Strode

Associate Professor of Chemistry

Carroll College

1601 N. Benton Ave.

Helena, MT 59625-0002

(406) 447-5564