Richard,
You identified the major mechanical issues leading to lab smells (hoods, poor handing, spills, storage cabinets), so you can consider adding in some chemistry. You mention "Clean off beakers, glassware, and any equipment used to handle odorous materials immediately" but here again there is no mention of chemistry or how to clean.
Yes, some amines and aldehydes can smell as you indicate, but three major culprits for lab smells are thiols, sulfides, and disulfides. Another uncommon but really nasty class is isonitriles.
So how does one address these odiferous compounds? With chemistry! A major point is that while thiols, sulfides, and disulfides smell really bad (as long as they are low enough molecular weight to be volatile) we can note that sulfoxides, sulfones, and sulfonic acids have limited smells. So an important method to quench thiols, sulfides, and disulfides (in bulk or merely cleaning glassware) is oxidation! This is easily done with Clorox bleach. Bleach will even oxidize many smelly amines. (And the dilute aqueous basic conditions will hydrolyze any hazardous chloramines.)
Even if all operations are carefully performed in a hood, researchers also need to be trained to capture and quench odiferous compounds that might be reaction byproducts such as thiols and hydrogen sulfide. If they merely go up the hood, the neighbors will not be happy! So again use bleach.
There might be circumstances where dilute hydrogen peroxide is preferred, but Chlorox bleach is really cheap.
Best,
Craig
Craig A. Merlic
Professor of Chemistry, UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Executive Director, UC Center for Laboratory Safety
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569
Voice: 310-825-5466
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU> on behalf of Richard Palluzi <000006c59248530b-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Date: Monday, August 1, 2022 at 12:01 PM
To: <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] New Article
Some of the members may be interested in my latest article.
"My Laboratory Smells!": Addressing Odors in the Laboratory, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-laboratory-smells-addressing-odors-richard-palluzi
Thank you
Richard Palluzi
BE(ChE), ME(ChE), PE, CSP,FAIChE
Pilot plant and laboratory consulting, safety, design, reviews, and training
www.linkedin.com/in/richardppalluzillc/
Richard P Palluzi LLC
72 Summit Drive
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
rpalluzi**At_Symbol_Here**verizon.net
908-285-3782
--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post