Loose white powder in a chemical cabinet
Yesterday a lab user came to lab management advising of some loose powder in a chemical cabinet. Upon inspection, it was observed that there was a large quantity of loose white powder on a high shelf in the cabinet that could have been there for a considerable time. The powder was surrounded by lots of other chemical containers and there was no clear reason for this powder to be there. There were no broken/ cracked/ disintegrating containers nearby which means at some point someone has removed a container from the cabinet that was damaged in some way and has left all this unidentified chemical in situ. This is highly unacceptable and extremely serious as far as Health and Safety is concerned.
Most of the chemical cabinets in the Blizard are in a complete state of disarray. A lot of them contain chemicals dated 10+ years ago or chemicals that were bought by people who have left or retired or contain chemicals in containers that have started to disintegrate such as the lid on the chemical shown in the image on the right. It is only a matter of time before there is the good chance of a serious health and safety situation arising from an old container cracking/ breaking and releasing potentially hazardous liquid/ powder or worse, as certain chemicals have the potential to become explosive when left to dry.
Lab management are bringing this to your attention as improvements need to be made to the storage of chemicals within the Blizard. We will be in touch with further information as/ when decisions have been made.