Hello,
My question is, if you have a brand new flammable cupboard (small single door, no connection to vents) and have sealed all the bottles with parrafin/tape but you still having an overpowering smell every time you open the door. Is there a method that you can put something in there to absorb the odours? eg bicarb soda? Has any one tried this or any other method?
Thanks Trish
Just make sure that your smelly cupboard is not in your prep. room/work area. Some time back I had a new science co-ordinator move our flammable and organics cupboard from our chemical bunker back into my senior prep.room. They were not vented to the outside and the smell was awful. For at least two years I was unwell and took sick leave more frequently. Finally someone came through assessing OH&S issues for the entire school. I bent his ear a little about having to work in constant close quarters with these chemicals. The cupboards were moved back to the chemical bunker within a couple of days. A victory for common sense. As soon as they were removed there was an improvement in my health, however I find I have become more sensitive to a lot of the chemicals I am working with. Either insist the cupboard/s is/are vented to the outside or have them removed from your work area for the sake of you own health.
Lyn.
maybe put it in your chemstore with an extraction fan or have a window fan put in thr room it is in.
This is an OH&S problem so maybe you need to ask for some fan to take the smell away
Noona Lab Manager
Greystanes High School
Beresford Rd
Greystanes 2145
8868 9113
ROSALIE.CASSAR@det.nsw.edu.au
hello Viclabbie, to clear you up on the tape issue. I was once told that you can tape up the lids of the bottles of flammables its stops the smell through evaporation realeased.
This problem is not in my chem store but a school near by, the cupboard is in the chemical room, but is a small size flamm cupboard and does not have to connected to the vents. But (julia) is still having the issue of overpowering in the smell when you open the door, she is trying to sort the issue out
Thanks for any ideas, but it looks like the only way to sort it will be to connect to vents.
Trish
I have the same issue with both my flammable and corrosives cabinets but have been told that because they are stored in the chemstore which is vented and exhusted there is no need to vent the individual cabinets (from the business manager what would he know, he had a curtain rail installed around my emergency shower just incase i want privacy while my skin is burnt off from the fumes in the unvented corrosives cabinet.BTW there is no drain under this curtain railed emergncy shower I dont have a curtain up incase you wondering ). HOWEVER I visited A larger senior school last year and and the tech there told me they had to been vented and if we where ever inspected we would be told to get them vented ASAP!
Apart from getting your HT or CSO to check the size of your cupboard (related to the total quantity of flammables kept in your storeroom) and whether it has to be vented, also check that all the lids on the bottles are new plastic ones, and still use the tape. The older bakelite ones can crack or become porous over time and then outgas. Once this has happened, however, it's difficult to remove the residual odour in the cupboard from the long-term storage.
or have a window fan put in thr room it is in. 
away
(from the business manager what would he know, he had a curtain rail installed around my emergency shower 
just incase i want privacy while my skin is burnt off from the fumes in the unvented corrosives cabinet.BTW there is no drain under this curtain railed emergncy shower 
I dont have a curtain up incase you wondering 
). HOWEVER I visited A larger senior school last year and and the tech there told me they had to been vented and if we where ever inspected we would be told to get them vented ASAP!
