Australia's Science Forum

Just wondering if anyone has tried the Laqua-Twin meters from Westlab. The sales rep showed me some this week and they look really easy to use. We are after one or two pH meters and possibly buying the whole set somewhere down the track. Would like to hear from anyone who has bought any of them and ...

We are required by legislation to have the SDS available for all hazardous chemicals. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to find out if the substance is hazardous is by reading the SDS! I tend to just collect them for all my chemicals - it is still good practice to know what to do with a spill or...

It depends on the budget of the school. I've worked in three schools and two out of the three had lab coats. The third school used disposable ones very ocassionally.

I just bought some from Westlab. I'd previously bought their LPG ones at my other school and was happy with the quality, so stuck with them for the natural gas ones. They cost about $13 each. Used them for the first time yesterday with no complaints from the teacher.

I think that would be the better option, Macca. CSIS, without updates, is unreliable. We subscribe to Riskassess, so I am referring to that as it keeps the year group usage and hazard rating up to date.

Non DEC schools do not have access to the electronic version of CSIS at this stage. Be cautious using the printed version of CSIS, produced in about 1999, as some parts of it are out of date.

Hey Vicky, not sure what the expectations are in your part of the world, but in NSW that is teachers' work not ours. It's good to know these things to be able to help out but my job is to provide the equipment and materials that the teacher orders, not work out what the teacher should be ordering. W...

The thing that may be a problem is that UV light doesn't penetrate. UV light is used for decontaminating irrigation water in the nursery industry but for it to be effective the water has to pass over, or under, the light in a very thin stream. Unless someone has come up with something specific for a...

There's no direction in legislation or regulations that state it has to be single sided. So, yes, save some paper and print double sided.

Thanks for finding that out Elizabeth.

Xenon wrote: Works well in the morning.

Ha! A bit like me! Known to be a bit sluggish in the afternoon.

Good to get another name for it in case the one we get is no good. Thanks Xenon.

Wayne - praying that you have a nice speedy recovery. Good news about the pathology results. The holiday sounded great, now you're back at work having a rest?

Safework NSW (previously Workcover) require that staff using hazardous chemicals must have access to the SDS. If you only have an electronic copy, staff will not be able to access the SDS during a power failure or other computer problem. It does seem a waste of paper, knowing that I'm probably the o...

One of the things I forgot to do before finishing up at the old job was take note of the size of the glass tubing we had. Any suggestions on what I should buy? We don't have any here yet at all.

Found some from Southern Biological. $32 for 500mL but the dilution rate is 1:100. So it will last a long time. I had read on Science Assist in their SOP for dissections, to clean equipment with disinfectant. Hence my enquiry.

Hey, Fireweb, that sounds great! We did a trip last year from home (near Mittagong) to Balranald (Yenga N.P. - excellent spot), Mungo National Park, north to Ivanhoe, Coonabarabran then across the coast to Corindi (north of Coffs) and home. Excellent trip, travelled some really isolated roads. The r...

Just wondering if any of you use a hospital grade disinfectant for cleaning benches (especially after dissections/agar plates). I have found some but are only of this grade if used neat. Has anyone found one that can be diluted and still be effective?

This is the thingy I was looking for. It's called a solar bag and is a lot of fun:

http://www.chemtalk.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=451/index.php/solar-bag.html

From what I understand, you are still permitted to buy ammonium nitrate in small quantities, but the problem comes from the suppliers. Somewhere up the supply chain, someone will have to store larger quantities of the chemical, with all the required restrictions. I'm not sure what these are, but are...

Okay, sorry for the terrible description. Years ago, a teacher I'm working with bought, what can only be described as a very large garbage bag. The idea, you got a group of students to fill it with air by running with the bag open, then it was sealed off and as it heated up it would rise up (some st...