Exposure to chemicals

[biosafety_first]

Hi all,

I'm a molecular biologist who is worried about exposure to chemicals in spite of taking safety measures. Particularly, I worry about being exposed to chloroform and methanol. Perhaps those of you who work with these chemicals or are knowledgeable can enlighten me. Right now I went down a spiral of scary studies and MSDS warnings and I'm truly freaking out.

I used to work with small amounts of chloroform (about half a ml) placed on cotton. Even though I performed the experiment in the fume hood, which takes about a few minutes, I disposed the cotton outside the fume hood after I'm done. My supervisor suggested that I let the chloroform evaporate first, and then throw away the cotton into the biohazard bag. I could sometimes perform the experiment 10 times, so then I'd have bunch of chloroform cotton in the biohazard bag outside the fumehood. Even though the garbage was far away from where I stood, I realized that I could smell chloroform once in a while, so then I started accumulating the cotton inside the fume hood in a container before disposing of the container. My worry is that because I could smell chloroform once in a while, maybe I was constantly exposed to low levels of chloroform for a year. 

A similar scenario happened with methanol. I had to wash some equipment outside the fume hood with methanol. Luckily, I didn't do this very often, but again there were times I could smell it. 

At all times my skin was protected, but obviously, I inhaled these chemicals. 

Is there anyone who also experienced something like this? Is this dosage enough to cause any harm? 

 

[Sensei]

15 minutes ago, biosafety_first said:

Is this dosage enough to cause any harm? 

Unlikely.

 

[CharonY]

1 hour ago, biosafety_first said:

Hi all,

I'm a molecular biologist who is worried about exposure to chemicals in spite of taking safety measures. Particularly, I worry about being exposed to chloroform and methanol. Perhaps those of you who work with these chemicals or are knowledgeable can enlighten me. Right now I went down a spiral of scary studies and MSDS warnings and I'm truly freaking out.

I used to work with small amounts of chloroform (about half a ml) placed on cotton. Even though I performed the experiment in the fume hood, which takes about a few minutes, I disposed the cotton outside the fume hood after I'm done. My supervisor suggested that I let the chloroform evaporate first, and then throw away the cotton into the biohazard bag. I could sometimes perform the experiment 10 times, so then I'd have bunch of chloroform cotton in the biohazard bag outside the fumehood. Even though the garbage was far away from where I stood, I realized that I could smell chloroform once in a while, so then I started accumulating the cotton inside the fume hood in a container before disposing of the container. My worry is that because I could smell chloroform once in a while, maybe I was constantly exposed to low levels of chloroform for a year. 

A similar scenario happened with methanol. I had to wash some equipment outside the fume hood with methanol. Luckily, I didn't do this very often, but again there were times I could smell it. 

At all times my skin was protected, but obviously, I inhaled these chemicals. 

Is there anyone who also experienced something like this? Is this dosage enough to cause any harm? 

 

Looking at the harmful level based on the MSDS sheets should give you a good idea about dangerous level. While I loathe to give advice on that matter over the internet (and you really should take about that with your health and safety officer and/or your supervisor), a simple estimate should provide you some insight whether you have approached that levels. You should also inform yourself on the bioaccumulative features of the chemicals that you are handling (though suffice to say, it is eliminated very quickly).

There are two general comments though. A) work with hazardous substances should always be under the hood,  and disposal of volatile substance have to be sealed. I.e. even if not immediately harmful, you should always limit exposure and your safety officer should let you know how to dispose them in a safe way. The second which seems off is that you put them into a biohazard bag. That would imply that you are also working with biohazards that come into contact with your cotton? 

[John Cuthber]

3 hours ago, biosafety_first said:

I went down a spiral of scary studies and MSDS warnings

Look for the MSDS for washing soda.
https://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/21080.htm

Also, as a kid I rather liked these sweets (which contained chloroform)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_V

[StringJunky]

7 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

Look for the MSDS for washing soda.
https://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/21080.htm

Also, as a kid I rather liked these sweets (which contained chloroform)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_V

I can almost taste one in my mouth now. I used to crunch a whole packet in no time.

[biosafety_first]

I appreciate all the responses, thank you.