From: "Paul Harrison"Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] UCLA Lab Fire One also wonders why the syringe "melted:" sounds like a plastic syringe since I doubt that even a t-BuLi fire could melt glass. I would NEVER recommend a plastic syringe for anything that isn't mostly aqueous, and certainly not t-BuLi. == Subject: RE: [DCHAS-L] UCLA Lab Fire Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 15:58:59 -0500 From: "Bush, Kimberly" Of course, I don't know exactly why she would use plastic instead of glass, it may be because similar procedures with less hazardous reagents are commonly carried out using a plastic syringe and she may not have felt that the substitution would decrease the risk. I wouldn't say that the use of a plastic syringe was a key contributing factor to the severity of the incident, but with out all the details it's hard to say. I would be interested in seeing the full incident report and what the college deemed to be the root cause(s) of this event. Kimi Bush Staff Chemist Med Chem Safety Committee Co-Chair Merck & Co. Inc. WP14-3 770 Sumneytown Pike P.O. Box 4 West Point, PA 19486 ofc: 215-652-2766 cell: 610-223-9227 fax: 215-652-3971 == From: "Alnajjar, Mikhail S" Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] UCLA Lab Fire Prior to using pressurized containers such as butyllithium, one of the safety practices is to use a needle to vent the container prior to the insertion of the syringe. Relying on piano fingers (:-) are not enough. A nitrogen bubble (as mentioned below) is also chemists best friend. __________________________________________________ Mikhail
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