Materials that are very dangerous to property, health, or the environment (like highly toxic gases, explosives, materials that react strongly with water, and pyrophoric materials) can't be bought until all the permits, administrative, engineering, and environmental controls are in place.
There are many rules about how to store and use dangerous materials. These include, but are not limited to, the Uniform Fire Code and local amendments.
Permits are needed for any amount of a material that is very dangerous and for small to medium amounts of other materials. (For example, you need a permit to store more than five gallons of flammable liquid in a building or any amount of a highly toxic or unstable substance.)
For help, call the Fire Department or the EH&S Facility Safety office at (206) 543-0465.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requires a diamond sign to be put on all doors in rooms where hazardous materials are stored or used in quantities that exceed certain thresholds. This also applies to rooms that are only used to store hazardous materials. For more information and signs, call the EH&S Facility Safety office at 543-0465.
Flammable Liquids: The most flammable liquids that can be kept in a single lab outside of an approved cabinet for flammable liquids is 10 gallons. All 10 gallons must be kept in approved containers, as shown in the table below, when they are not being used.
Peroxide Forming Chemicals: By autooxidation, some organic compounds can turn into peroxides. Peroxides can cause serious accidents and, in some situations, can turn into low-power explosives that can be set off by a shock, a spark, or something else that starts a fire. Under the right conditions, some organic compounds can turn into peroxides in just a few months. Keep an eye out for organic compounds in your lab, and make sure to write the expiration date on each container and look at them every so often to see if they need to be thrown away. Ether is an example of a chemical that makes peroxide.
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Material that burns:/i> When it comes in contact with air, a pyrophoric material will start to burn on its own. This material can only be used in very small amounts in laboratories with fire sprinklers (4 pounds aggregate per zone). A material that can catch fire is potassium metal. When working with this kind of material, you have to be very careful.
Material that is very dangerous: Materials that are considered to be very dangerous are only allowed in small amounts in University buildings (Up to 10 pounds per zone). Without engineering controls and a special permit from the Seattle Fire Department, you can't have any amount of highly toxic gas like arsine.
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Incompatible Materials: When two different materials come into contact with each other, they might react in a way that creates heat, fumes, gases, or other dangerous byproducts. For amounts of more than 5 pounds or 1/2 gallon, you need at least 20 feet between them, approved cabinets, or a noncombustible wall. When it is possible, smaller amounts should also be separated. People often break the law by storing flammable liquids with oxidizers.
Flammable Liquids and Basements: The International Fire Code says that you can't store liquids that can catch fire in the basement. There are, however, two major exceptions that apply to the University of Washington:
Existing Class H Occupancy rooms that have been left alone (i.e., chemical stockrooms design specifically for bulk storage of flammable liquids). There can't be any new Class H occupancy rooms for flammable liquids in the basement.
In two to four weeks, your trash will be taken away. Please make plans ahead of time and wait. Every piece of trash must be tracked from where it was made to where it was burned. We do the paperwork for hundreds of trash containers every week. By law, "hazardous" means that a chemical is corrosive, flammable, poisonous, or explosive. Some other chemicals are also treated as hazardous waste because they can cause cancer, stay in the environment for a long time, or can't be thrown away because they make dust or pose some other danger. Because it takes a long time to process the chemicals (it usually takes an hour to process one Chemical Collection Request) and because our trucks don't have a lot of space, it may take longer to pick up a lot of trash or a lot of containers. Most of the paperwork is already done for routine requests to collect money, so the process goes faster. If your trash is piled up wrong (according to the above rules), we will stop and talk to you about it if you are there. We won't take away your trash until the problem is fixed.
This training should be taken by all new employees and anyone who has forgotten the basics of how to deal with hazardous waste. It talks about what a hazardous waste is, how to label it, store it, and get rid of it. It also has a short quiz. All of this should take between ten and twenty minutes. If you do well on the quiz, you can ask for a certificate of completion to put in your training file at any job you have.
