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Suggestions for Taking a Chemical Inventory
in the School Science Department
• Have spill/breakage aids available.
• Make sure the room is well lighted.
• Plan before you start.
• Alert school administrators about the inventory.
SAFETY REFERENCE CHEMICAL INVENTORY
• Use safe ladders.
• Wear appropriate clothing.
• Avoid involving students.
• Work slowly.
We are sure that responsible science teachers and school administrators agree that
it is necessary to know exactly what chemical substances are present on school
premises and in what quantities. Such an inventory would serve many valuable
purposes such as (but not limited to):
• To comply with regulatory requirements
• To make the school safer
• To efficiently use (and perhaps share) the existing inventory
• To rid the premises of excess/unused chemical substances
• To implement the storage of all remaining substances in compatible chemical
families
• To isolate and safely store particularly hazardous substances
• To create and maintain a perpetual inventory of all chemical substances
• To identify substances (e.g., severe toxins, carcinogens) that should not be found
on school premises and get rid of these materials
• To identify substances as a function of their specific hazardous character (e.g.,
flammables, acids, oxidizers) and provide their dedicated and approved storage
In our opinion, just plain old-fashioned “good sense” suggests that it is time for
action! Action demands that you know what you have and how much of it you have.
Once this inventory is accomplished, a great many benefits will follow.
It is very important to point out that laboratory chemicals should no longer be
purchased like other routine school supplies! The normal routine of most schools
is to acquire a year’s supply of needed chemicals at one time along with other
routine science supply needs. The result of this process is that dozens of chemical
items, many in very large quantities, arrive at the school and are then stored in
science storerooms never designed to handle such quantities and rarely equipped
to meet even minimum standards of safe storage. We are sure your conventional
wisdom says that the smaller the quantities of these materials found in schools at
any given time, the smaller the problem.
We cannot emphasize strongly enough the need for science teachers, science
department heads and, most particularly, school administrators and business
managers to recognize the problems created by lumping hazardous chemicals
into the buying routine. To continue to apply the same buying routine to hazards
simply aggravates and perpetuates the problem. Those in the school with science
backgrounds must educate the non-science-trained administrators about the
severe problems created by continuing to buy hazardous chemicals in the same
manner as they buy routine school supplies.
It can also accurately be stated that when a large school with many science
teachers has no one in charge of managing the chemical storeroom, the problem is
made more severe. When every science teacher or multiple science teachers are in
charge of this matter—then, in fact, no one is in charge.
School districts with multiple school buildings also should give very serious
consideration to establishing a central “chemical ordering committee.” This
committee could routinely see every chemical requisition. Their review would
be aimed at completely eliminating or reducing the quantity of some substances
purchased. No, we are not suggesting that science teachers be denied access to
needed reagents. We are, however, suggesting that the matter be well managed.
Who better to manage the problem than the knowledgeable users (i.e., the science
teachers meeting as a committee).
It is common to find, among multiple school buildings, an excess of a chemical
in Building A while the science teacher in Building B just placed an order for
the very same chemical. Why can’t inventories be shared with the goal of better
systemwide chemical management? If the impediment to better, safer and more
efficient substance management is the “established system” or the “established
bureaucracy” then the “system” or the “bureaucracy” must be educated and its
methods changed. An efficient method of chemical management in a science
department or in a multiple-building school is to provide inventory-level information
to all users and allow all users access to excess inventories. One building or
department should not be allowed to rob another’s inventory. However, excesses
should be identified and shared. The science teacher who is a good substance or
inventory manager should not be penalized to serve the poor manager in another
department or building. Conventional wisdom suggests that excess substances
can be better managed by sharing knowledge of their existence. For more efficient
management of chemical supplies, a good inventory and communication is critical.
Once you have decided it is time to take an inventory, plan for the event using the
Inventory Planning Checklist that follows on the next page. A very effective means
of taking and temporarily recording your inventory is by using your phone or tablet
as a recording device.
It is an absolute that you never undertake an inventory alone. You must always
have a teammate. The teammate is there to help you, to hold a ladder, to go for
help or just to be there—but, in any case, you should never work alone. We urge
against recruiting students. It is also an absolute that the right kind and type of fire
extinguishers be in the room with you and immediately available for use.
Another absolute is that you are appropriately dressed and spill materials are
present. In general, we assume you have done all the preplanning and all the plans
have been implemented.
Record on paper or computer, the chemical name, bottle size, bottle type and
approximate amount of chemical present. For example, a typical description might
read, “one 5-lb bottle, glass, of acacia, about one-half full.” You may opt to use
Flinn Online Chemventory™, which is a cloud-based laboratory chemical inventory
system that allows multiple users access to a single chemical inventory database
CHEMICAL INVENTORY continued on next page.
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