| A variety of regulatory agencies require the university toconduct and
submit current chemical inventory information on anannual or more frequent
basis. The types of materials ventoried and their quantity
often dictate further action andregulatory response. In addition inventory
information isprovided to emergency response agencies to facilitate
planningand implementation of response actions.
Historically, the university has relied on the members ofindividual
laboratories to conduct the inventory. The inventorywas based on the
quantity of hazardous materials on hand and anestimate of annual usage.
This information was provided to thesafety office for compilation and
further regulatory action. Theuniversity has faced problems from the poor
quality of inventorydata provided in some circumstances. Confronted with
expandedregulation, detail, and type of information required by
agenciesthe university has shifted to an individual container
basedinventory.
An inventory system was designed that would meet regulatoryneeds, be
easy to use, be a useful tool for laboratories, andhave the ability to be
used as a data base for other programmodules such as life safety code
compliance, chemical mpatibility, and a chemical cooperation/share
system. Thesystem was developed in concert with the intended users
toincorporate features that they would find useful and provide
someinsurance that the system is designed to allow chemical users
tomaintain and update their inventory, and would be compatible
withfuture plans for online chemical ordering. The initial work
ofdeveloping a container based inventory is conducted by teams ofstudent
employees. Each container is labeled with a uniqueidentifier (bar code
with a human readable type), and data isrecorded using notebook
computers. The specific location of eachcontainer within the lab is
included in the inventory. ¥nformation collected includes chemical name,
chemical abstractservice (CAS) number, container size and type, physical
form,vendor, catalog number. The collection of data is facilitatedthrough
the use of lookup tables of chemical information. Theinformation
collected will be provided to the laboratory on discand will be available
from the safety office via a Local AreaNetwork and by modem. A supply of
unassigned bar codes isprovided to the laboratory to allow update of
inventory and foraddition of newly acquired materials. The program was
developedusing C++ and Borland Paradox as the database and runs in
aMicrosoft Windows environment.
The inventory includes hazardous materials in their originalcontainers,
hazardous materials in secondary containers which arethree liters and
larger, and gas cylinders. Hazardous materialsthat meet the above
criteria and are stored in refrigerators,desiccators, and other controlled
environments are included inthe inventory but the physical removal from
the controlledenvironment should be performed by the laboratory staff. |
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