E-News for August 2000
Greetings ALMA Members,
Almost all laboratories have fume hoods to protect workers from exposure to hazardous materials. As managers, it is our responsibility to establish an appropriate inspection and maintenance program to insure that these devices function properly. This usually includes inspection of belts and motors and verification that the face velocity is in the correct range (usually 100 to 125 fpm). However, there is an additional responsibility to insure that the hood is used properly and personnel are adequately informed on safe operation. For many hoods, sash height determines the face velocity and must be maintained at the proper position to provide maximum protection—velocities either higher or lower than the recommended range increase potential for exposure. Hot plates or other electrical devices placed inside a hood are potential ignition sources when volatile solvents are being used. The interior panels of hoods used for combustion procedures requiring an open flame should be verified to be fireproof (many are made of polymer) and all other materials should be removed. Hoods should not be used for long term storage of solvents since they are not designed for this purpose and do not offer the fire protection of solvent cabinets. Check solvent container sizes to make sure that the volume in the hood does not exceed the spill containment capabilities. Analysts should also be reminded of common sense items such as keeping their heads out of the hood except when constructing or dismantling equipment and to maintain operations at least six inches inside the hood. And finally, covering air intakes, blocking baffles, or otherwise altering hood operation to maintain temperature control in the laboratory should not be permitted.
I recently found a container of an old chemical for which I did not have a material safety data sheet (MSDS) and a coworker pointed me toward a MSDS index website (siri.uvm.edu/msds/) where I found the information that I needed. It occurred to me that there are many sites containing information that would be useful to lab managers if only we knew about them. The ALMA website (www.labmanagers.org/resources) contains a limited number of useful links but this is only a small fraction of what’s available. I would like to expand this collection to make this page the first destination for a lab manager seeking information. If each of you will send me a list of websites that you have found on material properties, safety, suppliers, management, or any other items that would be interesting or useful to other lab managers, I will organize them in some manner and work with our webmaster to make them accessible to all. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a single site that can direct you to the information that you need? Any site that is useful to you in your job may be useful to others—send it along and let’s get this started!
Those of you who have not seen the new ISO 17025-99 Standard (General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories) should take a look at it. This standard has many of the same elements as the familiar ISO 9000 quality standards but is more detailed, specific, and prescriptive since it applies only to laboratories. For example, it not only specifies that a lab must have a quality statement but also list elements that must be included in the statement. Overall, it defines a very robust quality system that can benefit any lab that implements it but like most ISO standards, it is very bureaucratic and carries a heavy administrative load. One of the new items that has caused concern for many labs that follow the standard is the requirement for an explicit evaluation of the uncertainty of measurement in more detail than is typical for most labs. Auditors are focusing on this requirement and expect a very detailed “uncertainty budget” that considers effects such as errors in volumetric measurement if the temperature varies by a couple of degrees and the error in the NIST standards. There may be ways that those of us who maintain accredited labs can help each other to deal with these changeslet me hear from you if you are interested in networking on this issue. For those who are not accredited, read the standard anyway since it will probably offer some ideas that you can use to improve your lab even if you dont implement the entire system.
If you have any comments, cost saving suggestions, opinions, etc. let me hear from you .
Wayne