Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 09:00:51 -0500
Reply-To: List Moderator <ecgrants**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: List Moderator <ecgrants**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
Subject: 3 more Re: [DCHAS-L] UCLA Lab Fire

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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