WEBINAR 2 SCHOOL CHEMICAL SAFETY
- May 14, 2024
- 4 min read
Webinar 2 School Chemical Safety
What to keep: criteria for keeping stock chemicals
Introduction and welcome
Your trainer: Becky Andersen, Hazardous Materials Consulting from Iowa. Funding provided by a grant from EPA Region 1 to the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission and coordinated by Vickie Davis of the Commission- THANK YOU! Contact information is available on the last slide today.
Goals for these webinars: Provide pertinent, effective guidance and education to best reduce risk of unsafe chemical management in schools. Identify resources that may be useful. Answer questions.
If you have technical issues, please check this slide. To make the webinar run smoothly, our host, EPA has used some specific limits on Zoom. These will be saved to the HMC website for your future review.
Today’s topic: Deciding what chemicals to keep in science stockrooms.
1. Review of Legacy Chemicals and High Hazards.
2. Assess the safety measures in your lab (RAMP- Recognize, Assess, Minimize, Plan)
3. Assess the chemicals on your inventory list. Four criteria to help you decide which chemicals to keep in your stockroom.
Review of Legacy Chemicals and evaluating lab safety measures
1. Legacy Chemicals: History and High Hazards
a) In the last webinar we discussed legacy chemicals which are those left from the 1950’s and 1960’s. The are outdated and some have become dangerous. We discussed how to determine if you have legacy chemicals and we asked you to locate and identify (BUT NOT MOVE) high hazards.
b) As an action item in the “Things you can do today to improve safety” we asked you to review chemicals that you use in experiments and make a list of them (inventory). Next steps are to evaluate the chemicals on this list to determine if they should stay in the stockroom.
2. Evaluating the safety equipment present in the lab and stockroom:
a) Begin with an evaluation and inventory of the safety equipment in your classroom. Document the location of each piece of safety equipment on a map of your classroom, its status, and any required action items.
b) As you evaluate equipment, document if there are items that need to be repaired or replaced and alert facilities to those needs.
1) This will become part of your annual safety review and the Chemical Hygiene Plan for your school.
2) A flush kit is available to flush the Safety Shower and Eyewash Station weekly.
3) Fire Extinguishers must be visually inspected monthly.
4) Corrosive and Caustics should be stored in separate, HDPE or wooden cabinets- NOT metal. No metal clips, shelves, or hinges. Recommend SciMatCo cabinets.
5) If students are working with toxic chemicals, acids, or bases, wearing safety glasses and disposable, chemical resistant gloves are a necessity. As you are assessing chemicals in the stockroom for minimization, wear appropriate Personal Protective Equipment.
3. Assess the chemicals in the stockroom for disposal.
a) Evaluate the age of the chemical: use logos as a guide.
b) Evaluate the quantity of chemicals you have: keep a 5 year supply and do the math.
c) Evaluate the integrity of the chemical container: nothing cracked, broken, leaking, brittle.
d) Evaluate the level of risk using the King County School Chemical Risk List
1) Evaluate to see if grade level appropriate
2) Consider the risks associated with the chemical and the safety measures required
3) Understanding the risks of Formaldehyde and Methanol
4) As you identify chemicals you use on your inventory, verify that you have the safety measures in place and that they are age appropriate. If not, remove them from the inventory and add them to the disposal.
5) In New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine, there is a resource available to help. Other states will have to ask vendors local to them.
e) CONGRATULATIONS: You now have a map of safety equipment, an inventory of chemicals you will keep and use and you are working on a disposal plan! Those are three components of a Chemical Hygiene Plan! Great job!
4. What can you do TODAY to improve safety?
1) Begin to identify items that are no longer needed and are taking up space in the chemical storage room. We have learned that housekeeping minimizes risk. Items that we have learned have very little utility and should not take up space in a chemical stock room include: previous test results or student work, outdated equipment (even if it looks cool!), kits that are missing components, glassware, outdated textbooks, furniture, outdated equipment, anything that is taking up space that your team won’t use.
2) As you identify items that can be removed or be disposed, check the integrity of the shelves and storage areas. These will be the areas that chemicals to keep will be stored by compatibility class.
3) If you have identified a chemical or experiment that presents too much risk, work to identify an alternate experiment or chemical. Consider the following:
(a) Are there safer alternatives? Match risk to safety equipment
(b) Are there “greener” alternatives? May make disposal easier and cheaper.
(c) Are there steps to minimize waste such as smaller scale experiments?
4) Remember RAMP: Recognize, Assess, Minimize, Prepare. Focus on Minimizing.
5) Attend Webinar #3: Understanding Hazardous Waste regulations: The Basics
We look forward to continuing work with you. The next webinar is: March 28, 2024 and the topic is “UNDERSTANDING HAZARDOUS WASTE REGULATIONS: THE BASICS”
