AUDIT

[Kathryn]

I do the chemical audit for the whole school. i include all chemicals whether opened or not (not dilutions or dropper bottles etc). I can't imagine why you would not include open chemicals - they are just as dangerous and the fire department needs to know where all hazardous chemicals are located.

Kathryn

[Merilyn1]

For our chemical register, opened containers are counted as if they were full. A record needs to be kept of the maximum quantity you have on site. Say if you always buy your HCl in 2.5L bottles, when you do the audit there is only a drizzle left in the bottle, but the assumption is you will soon purchase another bottle. This saves you having to update your register each and every time you either use or purchase a chemical.
I don't record dropper bottles either, the quantities are small and most are not hazardous.

[Labbie]

Because they are IN USE , and you would have to guess how much was left, and the minute you take some out your chem reg is incorrect. So they only ask for Unopen chemicals.

[bigmack]

That seems crazy .I just had to do Chem stocktake for whole school ......that's another story

I am sure the fireys would want to know about the half full 25 liter drum of petrol in the GA's fuel cupboard and the acetylene bottles in metalwork and Automotive rooms .

What about the half empty 16,000 Liters of LPG .....guess no need to account for that either

These were the biggest risk items in the school ...everything else is piddling amounts in comparison .....surely just because they are opened they are not an accountable amount .

I added them on Chem watch as both maximum amount and actual ( guestimated amount ) as of July 2016.

Which is my next gripe about Chem watch . It will not allow me to filter hazards and just select items of a certain DG class , works for Corrosives but not flammables ,oxidants etc.
I rung Chemwatch help line and the nice Lady ( who is probably sick of my calling ) confirmed "yes there appears to be a problem" She said she would report it to the software guys but reconned nothing would probably happen as they are in the process of changing to a new server where all these little "bugs" should be fixed .

So After days of stocktaking the school I can't use Chemwatch to itemize DG groups and have to do a "Generate report" which is awesome fun and get a EXCEL file and manipulate that .......what a load of time wasting bollocks

[Labbie]

LPG container of course you would class as full, its only the smaller containers we where told not to guess. Our GA has Unleaded and Leaded fuel, his is always kept at 20L regardless what time of year we do the chem reg.

[Merilyn1]

Hey Bigmack - I agree with you on the counting opened containers. This is consistent with my, many, years of pesticide handling prior to working in the school system.
As for Chemwatch and their manifests - I got so sick of trying to work with it that last year I was given approval to convert the register (we do not need a manifest) to a spreadsheet. Previously, it would take me days to convert the Chemwatch list into a spreadsheet so I could give the other faculties something they could understand. This year I simply printed out last year's. Took me a couple of hours, tops, and that was with drafting a covering letter. The other thing I like about a spreadsheet, I can call a product by the name it is commonly known as, instead of an assortment of naming protocols including the brand name. I have saved the register to the cloud so everyone has access to it. Simple.