WARNING-NEVER PRESUME ANYTHING IN CHEMISTRY

[rp]

Hi Everyone,
I just thought I would tell you of an experience I have just had.
It could have been very nasty.
We moved a whole storeroom of old stuff up to the Science Labs and there was alot of old dessicators filled with liquid in them.
I asked the Teachers what they thought it was and they said it would be Sodium silicate that had taken up water.
I took the beaker out of one and noticed the bottom of it was eating away my bench.
Instead of just filling it with water and washing it,I poured a bit out in the sink and watched all these fumes coming out.

IT WAS CONCENTRATED SULPHURIC ACID!
APPARENTLY THAT WAS USED TWENTY YEARS AGO TO DRY OUT SUBSTANCES.
I hope this story might help you guys ,as this could have been bad especially the fact that the year 7 students carried them up to me.
Oh Oh !
Regards Rhonda

[Robbie]

Hi Rhonda ole pal,

Glad you are still in the land of the living!

We might have heard the explosion here at Asquith!!!

That is truly something that shakes you up.

Thanks for giving us all a warning to think first and label everything!!

Robbie

[Sam]

The problem is not us labling things it is the guys 20 years ago that needed to learn how to lable things. Oh and throw things out too.

I got into this lab 12 months ago and we had about 20 - 40 unlabled chemical solution. From Potassium Permanganate to clear/colourless unknowables. Luckly it was all very easy to clean up, just time consuming.

Now all chemicals are labled and DATED that way when a solution make the 2 year mark they can be delt with.

[KimFenley]

I've one better

I can to this school 4 years ago, and upon opening the Pre-room door was confronted with a floor full of plactic trays with chemicals in them and I mean the whole floor and benchs, As they were used the teaching staff just kept adding more trays to trays. Many were potential life threating in combination. It took 3 weeks to clear the floor.

Kim