[Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Fluid specimen room safety

[Dirk Neumann]

Dear Joosep,

this depends on your local fire safety regulations; in principle, ethanol itself does not burn, but the highly flammable ethanol fumes. Depending on your HVAC system, a sufficiently high air exchange rates in your alcohol storage significantly reduces potential fire risks. Another relevant factor is reducing potential ignition sources, as ethanol usually does not self-ingnite. It needs a spark.

In case of breakage, it is required in some countries that there are grooves or barriers, e.g. at doors to prevent that in case of a larger spillage ethanol can escape from the storage room. However, these grooves or small barriers usually affect much more, e.g. when you have to wheel carts over these barriers.

Storage rooms should be equipped with small emergency kits that help to remove spillages; there are several chemical spill kits with binders etc. on the market.

To create a combustible atmosphere it usually requires a "large spillage", e.g. a major earthquake or collapse of storage shelves that knocks off hundreds of jars at once.

Hope this helps
Dirk




Am 04.07.2024 um 10:43 schrieb Joosep Sarapuu:
Dear all,

How have you solved the safety of the rooms for fluid specimen? If the cans break, are there any grooves where the liquids run or how do you dispose of such things? What quantities have you considered in case something like that happens?

Sincerely,
Joosep Sarapuu
Estonian Museum of Natural History





_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l

_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.



--
****

Dirk Neumann
Collection Manager, Hamburg

Postal address:
Museum of Nature Hamburg
Leibniz Institute for the Analysis
of Biodiversity Change
Dirk Neumann
Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3
20146 Hamburg
+49 40 238 317 – 628
d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de<mailto:d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>
www.leibniz-lib.de<imap://dneumann@webmail.leibniz-lib.de:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/INBOX/Privat/www.leibniz-lib.de>

--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst

--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20240705/c2ea81bf/attachment.html>