Date: February 23, 2010 3:00:56 PM
EST
Subject: RE:
[DCHAS-L] Decommissioning Fume Hoods/Traps
We
decommissioned an older hood not too long ago and were surprised to find
an old fire extinguisher system inside. No one here knew how it
worked or why it was there, but it contained a very hazardous bromine
compound (whose name escapes me). It was a small amount, so
it ended up not being dramatic or expensive to dispose of. It did, however, take some
ingenuity to remove it from the housing and the antiquated alarm system
in the hood. If your
hoods are older, you might want to check for such things.
We also
recently moved a hood in which work with elemental mercury is
performed. I used an
outside contractor to perform a complete decontamination of the hood
before I would let the construction contractor do anything in that
room.
Unfortunately, they didn=92t do a
very good job and we found beads of mercury all over the floor and in
many parts of the hood.
Before we proceeded, the contractor had to come back out and
finish the job correctly.
In retrospect, I should have had a more defined scope of work and
a more detailed clean up check list for the mercury hood. Just something else to be
aware of.
Cheers,
Katherine
C. House, CCHO
Laboratory
Coordinator
Chemical Hygiene
Officer
Cormetech,
Inc.
5000 International
Drive
Durham, NC
27712
919.620.3044
(office)
919.815.2024
(mobile)
