ChE Faculty, Staff and Graduate Students,

There have been several incidents reported where shelves in flammable cabinets have collapsed or come loose.  When this happens there is a high potential for breakage of flammable chemical containers.  Flammable liquid spills pose a significant fire and personnel hazard!

The following links provide excellent information on shelf design flaws and fixes and on related incidents.

· http://www.ehs.wisc.edu/1978.htm

· http://risk.arizona.edu/healthandsafety/chemicalsafetybulletins/chemicalspill.shtml

· http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/83/i21/8321ohio.html

· http://ucih.ucdavis.edu/docs/i_CollapsedShelving.pdf

· http://www.aiha.org/insideaiha/volunteergroups/labHandScommittee/Pages/ShelfCollapse.aspx

Please review your flammable cabinets, both permanent/built-in and stand alone.  If you need assistance with repairs/fixes, please contact Jeff Valley. 

This is a good safety topic for research group meetings.

Thank you for your commitment to ChE safety.

Linda

Linda S. Davis

Industrial Education Director

Chair, ChE Safety Committee (https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/AboutUs/Safety.html)

School of Chemical Engineering

Purdue University

lsdavis@purdue.edu

(765)496-7826