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Chemical Inventory, continued
To the extent you can, you should avoid actually touching or moving bottles to take this inventory. If your shelves are loaded you may have to remove some bottles in order to see the bottles at the rear of the shelf or cabinet. Try to avoid as much moving or transfer as possible.
It is unlikely that you will want to reorganize your shelves at this time since your primary goal is to determine what you have and how much of it you have. Once the inventory is complete and has been
converted to hard copy then you can begin to think about the reorga- nization process. At this point focus on just discovering and recording what and how much you have. You really should not consider major reorganization until you know the “what and how much” since these facts may cause you to elect not to set shelf space aside for substances you wish to eliminate from your inventory. It is our experience that in an average school (if there is such a thing as an average school) four out of ten bottles on the shelves have not been used in the last five years and will not be used in the next five years. There is no need to dedicate shelf space to such excess substances.
If your shelves and cabinets are just loaded and a lot of movement of substances is required to inventory all the materials, then the task will require several hours. If however, most substances can be viewed and recorded with little bottle shifting or relocation then even a very large high school chemical stores facility will not require much more than about 2–21⁄2 hours to record all of these substances and their pertinent information.
We recommend aquiring the Flinn online chemical inventory system called Chemventory.TM This system can be used to track and describe chemical information and on-hand amounts, while also providing easy, electronic access to chemical information form on- and off-site loca- tions. See pages 140–141 for details about Flinn Online Chemventory.TM
Next assign compatible chemical family designations and hazard data to each listing. Our computer chemical inventory system has established 15 alpha designations to identify hazards. You may wish to use this same system to code your list. The designations are shown to the right.
If you do not know either the hazardous character or compatible chemical family of a substance, you need look no further than the individual listings of any chemical in the Flinn Scientific Catalog/ Reference Manual.
Your next step would be to decide what stays and what goes in this total inventory. We urge you to be ruthless in ridding your premises of these unused and unneeded chemicals. In fact, when you have made the decision about ridding yourself of many substances, then consider getting those items off your shelf first. No, do not simply acquire some cartons and pile bottle upon bottle into cartons and create a new prob- lem. Rather, use your conventional wisdom and ask yourself if the item is hazardous and then investigate its hazardous character.
Be able to call for help in the event help is needed.
Should it be physically isolated? An example please. Let’s assume you find a 500-gram bottle of aluminum chloride, anhydrous, and you wish to rid yourself of this substance. You do not know how to achieve this but you want it off the shelf and yet protected and safe for later disposition. Place the bottle in three thicknesses of Baggies®. You can get Baggies at your local grocery store. Flinn has heavy duty plastic bags called Chem-SafTM Bags for this purpose. You will find Chem-Saf TM Bags listed on page 122. Next, acquire some clean, never-used, one-quart and one-gallon paint cans. Flinn has such containers called Saf-StorTM Cans. These are also listed on page 122. You can acquire similar cans (less heavy duty) at a local paint store or store that might sell and mix paints to order.
Now, line the bottom of the can with just enough vermiculite or cat litter (cat litter is bentonite) to cushion the plastic bag-enclosed bottle. Place the plastic bag-enclosed bottle in the center of the can. Fill the remaining empty void of the can with vermiculite or cat litter. Place the friction lid on the can and label the outside of the can with the chemi- cal formula of the substance contained therein. By using the chemical formula rather than the full name you can thwart the potential vandal intent upon securing or using a hazardous chemical. The vandal simply will not be able to read the formula.
Flinn Hazard Caution Codes
A — Flammable
B — Volatile
C — Toxic
D — Strong oxidizer or reducer E — Carcinogenic
F — Produces Peroxides
G — Skin and/or eye irritant
H — Contains harmful impurities
I — Unpredictable explosive J — Harmful dust or vapors K — Avoid contact with water L — Avoid contact with air
M — Corrosive
N — Allergen
O — Avoid contact with organic material
One kilogram plastic bottle of sodium carbonate monohydrate... about half full.
CHEMICAL INVENTORY continued on next page.