Chemical Laboratory Fume Hoods: Fill & Download for Free

During college, I worked at the organic chemistry laboratory stockroom supervising and preparing experiments for the TAs and underclassmen taking o-chem lab.One night, one of the students comes to the stockroom with a glass Pasteur pipette……lodged into her forearm. Tapered end in, of course.The pipette must’ve been a good 1 cm inside her forearm, as it seemed fixed in place at a perfect 90-degree angle. I was rather impressed, actually.Me: How did this happen?Student: My TA did it.ME: WHAT? What do you mean your TA did this?[TA comes scurrying along.]TA: Hi, sorry, it was me. It was an accident.Me: What happened?! Who is looking after your lab?!TA: I was using the air under the fume hood to dry the pipette. The air was really strong and it shot the pipette… directly into her arm.Fume hood with lots of chemicals. Some of those colorful outlet fittings blow air, the pressure of which can usually be adjusted with its corresponding valve.[Facepalm so hard my head snapped back.]Me: Okay, which liquids ran through the pipette before it got stuck in your arm?[Student and TA glance at each other, bewildered.]Me: Okay, never mind. Just fill this out. We’re going to have to send you to the ER.Student: Do I have to go? This is really embarrassing.…you and me both, kid. You and me, both.

TLDR: Guy I shared a hood with in a college chemistry class made Chlorine gas. EVERYONE WAS ALRIGHT. NO ONE DIED.It wasn’t in high school, it was in college. We had to do a lab experiment known as Qualitative Analysis, or Quals, where you were given an unknown metal ion and would have to use different tests and methods in order to find out what your unknown was. Each student had their own unknown.One day I didn’t finish my Quals in my class because I ran out of time. Fortunately, another chemistry professor was nice enough to let me do the lab in her class. When I was in their class, I had to share a lab hood with one of her students.I did my Quals and he did his Electrochemistry which had involved 18 Molar Sulfuric Acid. Because there were a bunch of tests and methods, I used a trash beaker where I would dump my chemicals in and I would later dispose of them in a proper inorganic waste jug that the laboratory techs would collect later on.My beaker was in the middle and I had dumped some of my unknown in the trash beaker. I guess the guy next to me got confused or something because he ended up dumping all of his Sulfuric Acid into my trash beaker.Because the Electrochemistry lab didn’t involve any hazardous gases, the fume hoods were NOT turned on. After he had dumped the sulfuric acid into the trash breaker, the solution turned green and a yellow gas went into the air and had smelled like bleach. I was pretty sure that he had made Chlorine gas and I inhaled some of it, getting most of the gas on my side, and I had this type of burning sensation in my throat similar to that of drinking warm carbonated soda. I ran out of the lab right after I breathed some of it in and tried to get some fresh air. For some reason, the first thing that came to mind was World War 1 and how many people died through the use of poisonous gases. Thinking about this, I got even more worried because I thought that I was going to die.After about 2 minutes of being outside and getting some air, I went back in and everyone was fine, even the guy who had worked next to me. After that, I just cleaned my glassware and locked it up, no one else knowing about what happened other than the guy I shared a fume hood with.

For most gaseous by-products, venting it out of the fume hood system is enough: dilution, dilution, dilution. A 12x22-inch fume hood opening will exhaust around 200 cubic feet of air per minute.Meanwhile, you might be producing one to five cubic feet of, say, hydrogen, over several minutes.