[Nhcoll-l] measuring ethanol/ denaturated ethanol concentrations in air.

[John E Simmons]

Dirk’s advice concerning the gas alarm is good, particularly the caution
about false positives. These alarms are usually very sensitive, which can
be a problem with a fluid preserved collection.



Checking the air in the collection storage area for ethanol vapors is a
fairly easy thing to do, but requires specialized equipment. You need to
contact an industrial hygienist who has air sampling equipment (a gas
monitor) and who can test for ethanol vapors. This equipment is common used
in industry and chemistry laboratories, so it should not be difficult to
find someone who can do the testing. Try to determine which chemicals were
used as denaturants, as these may affect the test results for denatured
ethanol.



A cautionary tale about testing:  Several years ago when I worked at a
university museum, we stored part of our fluid-preserved specimens on two
floors of a building next door to the museum, and the floor above the
collection was occupied by several university offices. The office workers
noticed a strange smell and called the university health and safety office
to complain that they could smell formaldehyde from our collection. I
explained that we did not have any containers of formaldehyde in their
building (that part of the collection was kept in the museum) and that we
had experienced no problems with evaporation from the containers. However,
because a complaint had been filed the university safety officer had to
investigate, so it was decided to sample the air in the collection rooms
for both ethanol and formaldehyde vapors. As I expected, no ethanol or
formaldehyde fumes were detected in the collection. Further investigation
revealed that what the odor that office workers were smelling came from a
dead bird inside an air conditioning unit. They had incorrectly presumed
the odor was formaldehyde because they knew the collection was on the two
floors below them.



--John


John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
*and*
Associate Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
*and*
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima


On Tue, Jul 13, 2021 at 7:39 AM Lennart Lennuk <
Lennart.Lennuk at loodusmuuseum.ee> wrote:

> Hi!
>
>
>
> Is there an easy way to measure ethanol/ denaturated ethanol
> concentrations in air?
>
> Do you maybe know some automatic measurement device?
>
>
>
> Best regards!
>
> Lennart Lennuk
>
> Head of collections
>
> Estonian Museum of Natural History
>
> +372 6603404, 56569916
>
>
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