Many of you are totally against abbreviations.  .  . How do you handle compounds where the abbreviation is more known than the name, such as EDTA?  Most people know EDTA by the abbreviation and not the name, Ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid.

In our lab we use abbreviations for common compounds with periodic table abbreviation such as NaCl, or KBr.  For chemicals whose names are too long or complex to be practical we use abbreviations and CAS#’s.  Most people in the lab know the abbreviation, but an outsider can at least recognize the and lookup the CAS#.  Since it’s only a few digits, even the longest named compound has a fairly short name name in comparison.  The only issue we have is when we have a chemical which doesn’t have a CAS# yet, but this is rare.

-Mike

To Everyone,