ChE Faculty, Staff and Graduate Students,

As you know OSHA did inspection of our Department and we performed well and showed good results of Safety culture in our labs, offices and auditoriums. Safety Committee provided audit of several labs on December 6-th addressing OSHA issues.

It came to our attention that one aspect of chemicals storage needs to be reviewed and adequate measures have to be taken to comply with OSHA and Purdue Chemical Hygiene Plan. We want to remind to segregate storage of Strong acids.

Strong Acids: e.g. hydrochloric, sulfuric, nitric, perchloric, phosphoric
Must be stored separate from weak acids (acetic and formic are combustible) or flammable solvents. Mixing either of these with Strong acids will produce heat and may result in a fire or explosion.

Special cases:

• nitric acid - is also a strong oxidizer (see below).
• perchloric acid: is a very strong oxidizer when heated and can be dangerous; should always be held in a secondary container (e.g. a plastic tub).
• chloric acid: is also a very strong oxidizer.

Such strong oxidizers must not be stored near any compounds that can be oxidized (like acetic acid or any flammable solvents/solids).

We ask that each research group review, discuss and follow-up on this issues.

Please contact any of the ChE Safety Committee members for assistance.

Safety Committee wish you Safe and Happy Holidays!

Yury Zvinevich

School of Chemical Engineering
Purdue University
Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, Room G111A

480 Stadium Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2100
Tel.: (765) 494-9368

Fax: (765) 494-0805
E-mail: yuryzv@purdue.edu
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/Directory/Staff/yuryzv.html