My late father was a Professor of Chemistry and we often had "interesting" chemicals at home (Benzene, Diethyl Ether, Pentane, Carbon Tetrachloride (CCL), Butyl Acetate, Lab Alcohol, Toluene, Xylene and Sodium Hydroxide right off the top of my head). He also collected elements and I still have a 1lb bottle of mercury safely stored as well as a very nice Honeywell mercury switch from a furnace (a substantial blob of mercury and being in a sealed tube, the mercury is bright and shiny without any oxidation).
I do recall back in the early 1970's when OSHA came into existence and started promulgating rules, how perturbed my father was at all the changes the university had to make in the chemical storeroom. CCL and Benzene were classified as carcinogens and moved into a newly built store room for such chemicals as well as requiring new handling procedures (no more just using it out on an open lab table). Sadly, approximately 25 years later in 1997 at age 75, he passed from bladder cancer most likely caused by exposure to the many organic chemicals like Benzene and CCL over the many decades. I recall reviewing my health history with my primary care physician and discussing parents health history with him. He recalled being in medical school and drawing lines on his skin with Benzene along with the other med students. Who knew? Robert On Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 11:20:15 AM UTC-4, Frank-KC2TKD wrote: > > You must have attended the same H.S. I did! Your description fits > everything I remember except we had a face shield with no goggles only when > handling chemicals. I wonder what happened to the barrel of waste that was > in the back of the room? > > > > Our teacher once put some mercury in a dish and we all used silver > quarters to show how the mercury would attract to the silver. Then go and > spend the quarters in the lunch room. > > > > Frank > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/17679bce-ccb1-46fa-8f1d-ffffcdada04b%40googlegroups.com.
