Chromatography Forum

Can you please suggest me some good mask? I am working with toluole, aceton, methanol, hexane. When I have to wash laboratory ware or to prepare analyzis
I have
to breathe this harmful chemicals. Any suggestions? How do you take care about your safety?

Hi, we work under a fume cupboard with these chemicals. So no mask is necessary.

Katha's advice is the best: those solvents are best used in a fume hood.

If you work in an industrial, academic, or pharmaceutical lab, your company or facility should have rules and standard procedures in place regarding handling of organic solvents.

baltgames103 wrote:
Can you please suggest me some good mask? I am working with toluole, aceton, methanol, hexane. When I have to wash laboratory ware or to prepare analyzis
I have
to breathe this harmful chemicals. Any suggestions? How do you take care about your safety?

Does your country have safety requirements?

Yes we have. I am from EU. I also work under a fume cupboard when It is possible. But there are still situation when you need to set up system or change solvent jar for example. It will be better If you have mask.

baltgames103 wrote:
Yes we have. I am from EU. I also work under a fume cupboard when It is possible. But there are still situation when you need to set up system or change solvent jar for example. It will be better If you have mask.

During such short exposition concentration of solvents in air won't reach Maximum Allowable Concentration level. You don't need to bother. If you still want to wear mask then read safety data sheet of each solvent (you should have read it anyway) and find out the right personal protective equipement from relevant section of MSDS.

adding to dblux_'s comment - If you are exceptionally sensitive to one or more of those solvents, you will find that only either a half face respirator with cartridges for organic solvent fumes or a PAPR hood with the same cartridge will help.

If it's just a matter of rearranging bottles and HPLC lines, keep things capped as much as possible, make transfers efficiently and hold your breath while doing your transfers. A little whiff of hexane or whatever won't hurt you.

Hanging around in a poorly ventilated lab while running HPLC with ~2% diethylether in hexane will make you a little loopy if you do so for long enough, but enough about my first lab job after college...