I happen to have always worked for companies that have a Christmas shutdown. With no one around for 2 weeks, and no Johnson Controls to watch over the lab, I have always shut down everything and backed up the computer databases.

For my FTIR, I make sure it has a good (or new) desiccant bag/cartridge. For my old FTIR that had purge gas, it needed to have the gas disconnected, the gas port plugged, and desiccant added.

Thank you,

Yaritza Brinker
260.827.5402

-----Original Message-----
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety On Behalf Of Monique Wilhelm
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 2:46 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Long-term Instrument Downtime ?

** External Email **

Anyone have best practices/protocols established for being away from instruments long-term?

With Univs closing nationwide, I am considering shutting down my analytical lab (chromatography and spectroscopy instrumentation as well as balances, centrifuges, pH meters, etc) with the exception of the NMR, glovebox, and cryofreezers. We do not have the monitoring abilities for our labs such as Johnson Controls that a lot of our other places have. Plus, Mother Nature is already very upset with us and I see no point in continuing to burn energy when no one will be around to use these things. I have never done this in the 18 years I have been here, but had it in my Business Continuity Plan anyway. So far, I am thinking of proper shutdown, unplugging, and covering in visqueen (leaks from the Water Crisis are still a thing). I could add dessicant to the FT-IRs???

Anything else we should be thinking about here or with modern instrumentation is this for some reason just a bad idea?

Thank you,

Monique

_________________________________________________________

Monique Wilhelm, M.S., NRCC Certified CHO

ACS CHAS Secretary|2017 CERM E. Ann Nalley Award Recipient

Laboratory Manager|Adjunct Lecturer|Chemistry Club Advisor

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry|University of Michigan-Flint

Emaill: mwilhelm**At_Symbol_Here**umich.edu

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