I read the MSDS on Phenol:Chloroform:IAA solution -and geez, it seems scary to work with. I worked with DNA extraction before in labs but haven't looked at the MSDS for PCI until recently.I know MSDS often exaggerates to stay on the safe side and I don't doubt that Phenol is very caustic and chloroform enhances it, but I see more experienced workers in my lab handling it outside of the fume hood and with quite a bit of expedience (what about splashes?)I guess my concern is:sometimes I do get a wiff of the acrid-smelling phenol when I take it out of the fume hood and put it in the centrifuge, and once or twice I had a few droplets splash onto my wrist (not covered by lab coat or gloves), but no burns or anything like that - is this bad? Should I honestly rush myself to the hospital everytime this happen and recommend those expensive Barricade/Responder gloves for my lab?
Yes, you should have a carbon monoxide detector in your home. And if you want to really do it right, one for each floor. ANY appliance which burns fuel is capable of emitting CO gas, if the wrong conditions occur. CO gas is emitted by fuel-burning appliances which are either improperly tuned (get a yearly furnace tune-up/check-up by a licensed repair tech!) or which does not receive enough oxygen to produce a clean burn. Chemically speaking, the CO molecule has one less oxygen atom than the CO2 atom, which is what you normally get when you burn a fuel, guess where the CO goes to get that extra oxygen from - YOUR BODY! Don't let this happen to you. When CO is emitted, it is an odorless gas. Some people think that they will smell an odor if CO is emitted from an appliance, but this is wrong. Further, CO will cause people who are sleeping to fall into a deeper sleep, unable to do anything about the problem and dying in their sleep. A CO detector is a very cheap lifesaving tool which is as important as the household smoke detector and a basic all-purpose fire extinguisher.
I said after Obama got elected the first time that he was a dog turd on the shoe of America it would take a LONG time to get rid of the odorI was right!
