Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology COSHH for Pharmacy and Pharmacology October 1 st 2013

Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology

COSHH for Pharmacy and PharmacologyOctober 1st 2013


COSHH regulations and chemical safety

• COSHH – Control of Substances Hazardous to Health

• Dr Tim Woodman – Chemical Safety Officer (P &P)

• 9W 0.03 (NMR suite)

• Ext 5555

• [email protected]



Four days after Christmas 2008, a 23-year-old research associate working in a UCLA laboratory accidentally pulled the plunger out of a syringe while conducting an experiment.

The syringe contained a solution that combusts upon contact with air. The solution spilled onto Sheharbano “Sheri” Sangji’s hands and torso. Her polyester sweater burst into flames. She wasn’t wearing a lab coat; no one had told her she had to.

UCLA researcher's death draws scrutiny to lab safety

A postdoctoral fellow from China, working nearby, tried to smother the fire with his own lab coat but didn’t think to put Sangji under an emergency shower a few feet away. By this point, deep burns covered almost half of her body. She died 18 days later.


Explosion at Texas Tech University

In January 2010, there was an explosion at Texas Tech University (TTU) that led to a graduate student losing three fingers, perforating an eye and sustaining significant burns.

The incident occurred when the grad student and a colleague were working with a new energetic material, a derivative of nickel hydrazine perchlorate.

A decision was taken to scale-up production of the material one hundred-fold, against lab protocol and without consulting their supervisor, with the end result being that the compound detonated.


COSHH – an overview

• Regulations are based on the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974), amended in 2002

• COSHH, when correctly applied, is an extremely useful approach. It will:• Help assess risks• Minimise exposure to hazards• Help establish safe working practices

• The law requires you to adequately control exposure to materials in the workplace that cause ill health

• COSHH should not be seen as a pointless form-filling exercise – it is a useful process to keep you, and colleagues working around you, safe


Hazardous Substances

• Many materials or substances used or created at work could harm your health; examples include:

• Dusts, gases or fumes that you breathe in• Liquids, gels or powders that come into contact with your eyes or skin• Harmful micro-organisms present that can cause infection, an allergic reaction or are

toxic

• Harmful substances can be present in anything from paints and cleaners to flour dust, solder fume, blood or waste

• Ill health caused by these substances used at work is preventable • Many substances can harm health but, used properly, they almost never do

• In P & P our biggest concern is hazardous chemicals


What are the hazards?

• Effects of hazardous substances:• Cause asthma, cancer (carcinogens) and other diseases• Damage to the skin (dermatitus) or eyes• Long-term damage to the lungs

• Time-scale:• Sometimes very rapid, such as dizziness or stinging eyes• Others may take years to develop, such as lung disease, often from repeated

exposure over a long time

• Many of the long-term or chronic effects cannot be cured once they develop.


How is COSHH approached

• The law requires us to adequately control exposure to materials in the workplace that cause ill health. In practice this means:

• Identifying which harmful substances may be present in the workplace

• Deciding how workers might be exposed to them and be harmed

• Looking at what measures you have in place to prevent this harm and deciding whether you are doing enough

• Providing information, instruction and training

• In appropriate cases, providing health surveillance


How to carry out a COSHH assessment

• There are three main steps to follow in an assessment

• Identify the hazards

• Decide who might be harmed and how

• Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions


Identifying the hazards

• Identification of which substances are harmful is usually achieved by reading product labels, safety data sheets (MSDS) and suppliers catalogue information. All chemicals are supplied with an MSDS, and this information is also available at several supplier websites (e.g. Sigma-Aldrich http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/safety-center.html)

• If in doubt contact suppliers for further information

• Consider the possibility of harmful substances being produced by your process (reaction). Sometimes two relatively benign chemicals can react to generate something far more harmful


Decide who might be harmed and how

• How might you be exposed? Consider the route into the body (whether the substance can be breathed in, get onto or through the skin or can even be swallowed) and the effects of exposure by each of these routes

• Think of how often the substance is used and for how long

• Think about anyone else who could be exposed (colleagues in the laboratory etc)

• Remember cleaners, technicians, contractors and other visitors or members of the public who could be exposed

• Consider what happens if controls fail


Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

• Once you have carried out a risk assessment and identified which harmful substances are present, and how workers can be harmed, you need to think about preventing exposure.

• Do you really need to use a particular substance, or is a safer alternative available?

• Can you change the process to eliminate its use or avoid producing it? If this is not possible, you must put in place adequate control measures to reduce exposure


How not to do it


Possible measures to reduce risks• Changing the process to reduce risks• Reduce temperature (use a lower boiling solvent?)• Use pellets rather than powders

• Containment• Use fume cupboards/safety cabinets to minimise escape or release of harmful substances• Minimise handling, and wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)

• Systems of work• Restrict access to those people who need to be there • Plan the storage of materials, and use appropriate containers• Plan the storage and disposal of waste

• Cleaning• Keep working areas clean and tidy• Have the right equipment and procedures ready to clear spillages quickly and safely• Accept that accidents will happen – be ready to deal with this


Worked example

• You are planning to reflux a Friedel-Crafst reaction of toluene with acetyl chloride, using AlCl3 as a catalyst

• Firstly consider the hazards (consult MSDS, containers etc):• Toluene - Highly Flammable, harmful by inhalation• Acetyl chloride – Highly flammable, reacts violently with water, causes burns • Aluminium trichloride – Causes burns

• Consider safety advice:• In case if contact with eyes, wash thoroughly with water and seek medical advice• After contact with skin, wash immediately with plenty of water


COSHH

• Who might be harmed?• You• Lab co-workers• Visitors to the lab (technicians, your supervisor, cleaners)

• Can you avoid the use of these chemicals?• In this case no – toluene is a reactant and solvent• Minimise the volume used (20 mL is better than 200mL)

• If use cannot be avoided use suitable control measures:• Use a fume cupboard• Wear appropriate PPE (nitrile gloves, lab-coat, safety glasses)• Be prepared to deal with spills and accidents



Forms to be initialled by TJW before activity starts

Place in TJW pigeon hole or go to 0.03, 9W


Further comments

• COSHH forms should be seen and initialled by TJW before work commences

• Forms can be put in TJW pigeon hole, or taken to 9W 0.03 (NMR suite) for signing

• Consider cross-referencing COSHH form to lab-book• Multiple experiments do not need multiple COSHH assessment – try to be

general and cover all scenarios. An example might be synthesizing a Grignard reagent – assess multiple R-groups and solvents using one form

• Completed forms should be available in the laboratory in a folder• In some circumstances COSHH assessment will have been completed by

others – it is sufficient to have read and understood this, sign the form and operate in the correct manner. An example might be in using buffer solutions in Pharmacology

• Use COSHH as a positive thing, to help prepare for when things don’t go to plan


University Health and Safety

Main link to the university H and S site

http://www.bath.ac.uk/hr/stayingsafewell/

P & P wiki on safety can be found here

https://wiki.bath.ac.uk/display/CAF/COSHH+and+Safety+in+Pharmacy+and+Pharmacology

(This includes links to the COSHH form both as PDF and editable word document)









General do’s and don’ts

• Lab coats and safety glasses to be worn at all times

• No food or drink in the labs (I found breakfast cereal in one last year in a cupboard!)

• Be aware of fire exits and routes, and also of safety showers and eye washers

• Try to work as clean and tidy as possible – it is good practice to wash up and tidy before you go home each night


Laboratory coats

Laboratory coats are a requirement in all laboratory environments, if you enter

the laboratory you will be expected to wear a lab coat and safety glasses

(even if you are not conducting an experiment)

You should also wear appropriate clothing under your lab coat. In particular solid shoes.

Sandals and open shoes will not protect your feet from chemicals or dropped equipment!!!


Safety glasses

If there are people in the laboratory conducting experiments you are required to wear safety glasses at all times…..

Even if you have finished your experiment and are writing in your book you still require safety glasses.

“It is statistically relatively unlikely that you will throw hot acid or boiling solvent into your own eyes. It will be your colleagues / friends on the next bench…….”

Contact lens wearers also need to be particularly careful. In accidents contact lenses will trap material between the lens and the eye.

Note: Ordinary glass (spectacles) will meet the minimum requirements. However they offer no side protection and modern small minimalistic frames offer little general protection.



Chemical disposal

• Solvent waste must not go down sink – use appropriate bottles. This includes acetone used for washing glassware.

• Solids can be bagged (e.g. silica).

• Small samples can be disposed of in solvent waste.

• Toxic wastes should be collected for special disposal (Bath University does this twice a year).

• Sharps to sharps bins.


General comments• Overnight reactions need a yellow card with contact and experiment

details.

• Out of hours work must be done with more than one person (i.e. not alone). This also applies to NMR out of hours. People have died in the past when working alone in chemistry laboratories – DON’T DO IT.

• Fires. Use appropriate measures and be sure you know what you will do before you start!

• If you have long hair tie it back to avoid the risk of entangling in apparatus

• Please ask me if you have any concerns about chemical safety


• Homer’s got it right – make sure you report things that go wrong

• You won’t get blamed, but it can help us take the appropriate action

• Repeated accidents can point to failures of procedure – this can help us eliminate problems in future



NMR for Pharmacy and Pharmacology (9W, 0.03)

• P & P has three NMR spectrometers, as part of the Faculty’s Chemical Characterisation and Analysis Facility (CCAF)

• Bruker 400 MHz Avance III for walk-up, general use, fitted with 60 position automated sample changer

• Bruker 500 MHz Avance III service instrument, fitted with 60 position automated sample changer, run by Dr Woodman. This is also available to approved users when not in use by TJW

• Agilent (Varian) 600 MHz Inova mainly used for DNA, protein but can be used to resolve issues that can’t be solved at 400 or 500 MHz


Bruker Avance III 400 MHz Spectrometer

• Used for routine all routine spectra (i.e. initial 1H characterisation)

• Automated queue system (BACS) and sample handling using Topspin (Bruker’s current NMR software) and automation via IconNMR

• Fully auto-tunable probe, so most nuclei can be run from automation, without expert intervention

• Used for routine 1H, 13C etc but also for 2D characterisation on final compounds

• Longer experiments (over 15 minutes are queued overnight)


Bruker 500 MHz Avance III Spectrometer

• Run as a service by Dr Woodman

• Samples submitted with form

• Runs identical software to the 400 (Topspin, IconNMR), but is much more powerful

• Used for all aspects of NMR - ideal for more demanding samples (such as VT, very small quantities)

• Approved users can use this instrument when not in use by TJW


NMR Training• NMR training (for use of the 400) will be on Tuesday 30th at 2.00pm, Thursday 2nd

Oct at 10.00 am and Monday 6th October at 10 am

• Please let me have you details via email (to [email protected]), phone 5555 or let me know which session you wish to attend

• Once you are happy using the 400 and have proven to be competent, training for use of the 500 is available on request

• There is an NMR WIKI available which provides valuable information about NMR – search confluence for NMR or CCAF

• Download the NMR sample submission form for the 500 from the WIKI or print it in the NMR room from the 400’s PC

• If you feel your chemical analysis skills are weak consider attending the PA10029 undergraduate lectures on analysis – ask TJW about this

mailto:[email protected]


Chemical Characterisation and Analysis Facility- CCAF

• CCAF comprises Mass Spec, NMR, X-Ray and more across the Science faculty

• M/S and NMR in both Chemistry and Pharmacy

• X-ray in Chemistry

• Other techniques – DSC, AA, GPC etc

• Useful contacts: o NMR - Tim Woodman, John Lowe o M/S - Anneke Lubbin, Mervyn Lewis, Christian Rehbein o X-Ray - Gabriele Kociok-Köhn and Alan Carver

See: www.bath.ac.uk/ccaf

Documents

Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology COSHH for Pharmacy and Pharmacology October 1 st 2013