Hi,
I assume that there is no other way and you have to share the space, so I will save you from the standard tirade about functional space segregation :-) If the air in the lab is so loaded with solvents that your plates are melting - then *you* (or anyone else for that matter) certainly should not be in there. If your chemistry lab is safe, and organic load of lab air is within safety limits then you shouldn't be too worried about it. VOC meters should be available at your University's Safety Office. I wouldn't be concerned about exposure of transient items (disposable plastic plates, experiments, etc.) to organic vapor - it's the equipment that I would be worried about because it stays in the lab for years. In general, organic vapors are not good for equipment, especially if you have machinery that has thin rubber gaskets in it. Not all gaskets would be affected, however it is a safe bet that common biology lab equipment is NOT designed with organic lab performance in mind - in other words, materials used for its manufacture are probably not compatible with solvents. The FPLC may or may not suffer but the cold cabinet housing the chromatography system might lose integrity after a few years, unless it is designed for performance in organics-rich lab. Since you're asking for advice - I'd fight for separate space. Your best friend here are the safety considerations - why expose non-chemists to solvents, organics, and the potentially hazardous reactions (i.e. runaway exothermics, etc.)? It's bad enough that the chemistry-oriented personnel has to be exposed, by necessity - so why do the authorities want to expose non-chemists? Good luck. Artem _____ From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Uma Katre Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 1:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ccp4bb] off-topic: protein crystallography in organic chemistry lab Dear all, Sorry for an extremely off-topic question, but I thought this would be the best place to find an answer. We are setting up our protein crystallography lab and have been asked to share laboratory space with an organic chemistry group which is already well established in the room. The room is spacious and nice so we want to make use of it. Although the organic chemistry lab is well-maintained, all reactions being carried out in fume hoods, proper disposal of solvents etc., a person like me who has rarely visited an organic chemistry lab can immediately get distinct smell of solvents after entering the lab. My questions are: is it advisable to set up the protein crystallization facility in such a laboratory? How badly can solvent fumes affect proteins, crystallization plates, the microscope and the crystallization process? We are supposed to put our FPLC also in the same room and are worried about that too. Any suggestion / advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance, Uma. -- Uma Katre, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA.
