Safety Police

[CE Instruments]

There was thread not so long ago on what manufacturers don't make, but they should. Every oven and microwave in every kitchen in the world has alight in it - GC ovens never.

Peter

Standard fixture in the Dani oven Think they were an option on the Varian GCs too.

[James_Ball]

oh yes, PeterApps, vespel graphite ferules. There is nothing like trying to thread a bit of black-coloured column through a small black hole in the middle of a small black ferule, when you've only got a foot of column to manipulate and it's fixed in a dark GC oven with no lighting available beyond a gloomy ceiling light that points in the wrong direction. And of course wearing gloves while you're at it. All we really need to make it completely impossible is black gloves to match.

My other favourite job used to be setting up the electrospray needle on the old DecaXP Thermo ion-trap. It was originally a piece of silica capillary threaded down a stainless steel tube. The coating on the capillary would tend to creep and become longer than the silica itself when running acetonitrile, so the engineers' advice was to burn off a few mm of the coating. This then means that you have an almost invisible capillary in an unlit, gloomy spray-chamber, and then you have to set it about 1mm inside the stainless steel - so you have to position something you can't see somewhere where it isn't visible anyway, and then guess how far it moves when you do up the fitting.

On those vespel ferules, I just keep poking until I hit the hole. lol

The other thing I have trouble with is trying to insert a syringe cleaning wire into the orifice of an ABI3200 LCMSMS to open it up without having to vent and clean it. Silver wire, silver cone, and it faces away at a 90degree angle from where you are standing.

As for the safety glasses, our company mandated we use the regular OSHA safety glasses with side shields if we have prescription glasses, like those protect you from spills. They are fine when you are using a grinder in a shop, but no at all good for splashed liquids. I just use a full face shield when working with hazardous liquids, better protection all around.

It is really sad when it is all required when working in a lab that only runs drinking water volatiles analysis

[KM-USA]

We "officially" have to wear goggles in our labs whenever working with liquids; this all stemmed from a lab worker who squirted some body wash that got into her eye a decade ago, and our VP of Research wanted to prevent any such occurrence. Our labs at manufacturing and labs of our sister companies (we've since been bought out) don't have this requirement, and that head of research is "gone". But my guess is no one wants to address this inconsistency, or someone feels loosening such restrictions could lead to a possibily - wait for it - potential liability issue.

[James_Ball]

We "officially" have to wear goggles in our labs whenever working with liquids; this all stemmed from a lab worker who squirted some body wash that got into her eye a decade ago, and our VP of Research wanted to prevent any such occurrence. Our labs at manufacturing and labs of our sister companies (we've since been bought out) don't have this requirement, and that head of research is "gone". But my guess is no one wants to address this inconsistency, or someone feels loosening such restrictions could lead to a possibily - wait for it - potential liability issue.

Makes me think, aren't those labels on the hair dryers telling you not to put them in the bath tub with you leading to reverse Darwinism? Survival of the dumbest.

[Steve Reimer]

Hairdryers in the bathtub? That's what GFI circuits are for!
How many people leave them plugged in near their sinks or tubs? You too can test consumer electrical equipment in your own home. See if your household wiring is up to code.

[lmh]

look on the bright side. Somewhere out there, someone has a good sense of humour. A colleague noticed a few years ago, printed in tiny letters on the bottom of a box of chocolates "Caution: do not invert package as contents may fall out".

[James_Ball]

look on the bright side. Somewhere out there, someone has a good sense of humour. A colleague noticed a few years ago, printed in tiny letters on the bottom of a box of chocolates "Caution: do not invert package as contents may fall out".

Reminds me of a manager saying a new tech was so dumb that he couldn't figure out how to dump water out of a bucket even if the instructions were printed on the bottom.

[Peter Apps]

Nowhere near so dumb as the packet of Baby Wipes with the list of precautions on the back, topped by "Keep away from baby"

Peter