Hi Melinda,

 

We have this same exact issue here at work, with our early drug discovery stage research. The primary issue for us is that the flammable materials cabinet is able to accept 4L bottles, but the bottles are too tall to allow space for the removable shelf. So if our scientists want to store the 4L bottles in a compliant manner, then they end up sacrificing 50% of their flammable materials storage space. They instead inevitably end up using the corrosive cabinet, as their work does not often call for strong mineral acids, but rather for organic flammable acids which are better suited for storage in the flammable materials cabinet (making this a mostly useless cabinet for the synthetic drug discovery chemist). This means that each of our ~30 chemists were storing about 6 x 4L bottles of flammable materials outside of a company (and code) required storage unit (~720 liters).

 

I had asked the group that installed the fume hoods for us. They told me that to retrofit this it would essentially require them to disconnect the duct work on top of the hood, jack the hood itself up off of the tabletop, remove the heavy table top (which is glued to the cabinetry below), unaffix the corrosive cabinet from the cabinets next to it, and then reverse the process. Their recommendation was to just purchase a free standing cabinet as it would be near impossible to retrofit the hoods. Now yours may be constructed in a different way, which allows modular pieces to be retrofit. I would reach out to the manufacturer and see if they have anything available.

 

My recommendation is to determine what your scientists are actually using the materials stored in these cabinets for. We have several conveniently located flammable cabinets for our common solvents, which they use for supplying chromatography equipment and refilling their personal squirt bottles. It turns out they were being 1) a bit lazy and wanted their own local supply rather than walking a bench or two over 2) they did not want to run out of material in the middle of a filtration or separation because the common cabinet is empty. In our case it was easier to work with the people to identify the root cause and try to mitigate their fears/difficulties by changing solvent stocking frequency than it is to retrofit cabinetry. If local storage is absolutely needed then a freestanding cabinet, such as those that fit conveniently under tables will be a great shared resource for small groups of scientists.

 

The flammable cabinet by code needs to be tested and certified by the manufacturer to provide adequate protection to the flammable materials contained within. So changing the door, even if it were to somehow provide the same level of protection will not be acceptable by fire code.

 

Best,

Michael

 

 

Michael Tchen

Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator

500 Arsenal Street

Watertown, MA 02472

617-744-3852 (office direct)

 

 

 

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety < > On Behalf Of Melinda Box
Sent: Wednesday, October 9, 2019 4:26 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] possible conversion of under-hood acid cabinet to flammables?

 

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