Stunning Practices

I know, I know. Different fields have different standards as to what constitutes "acceptable practice". That much is obvious enough when comparing organic lab with analytical lab - in the former, one rinses most glassware with acetone; in the latter, washing glassware with acetone is an anathema because the solvent is so dirty. In addition, even different workplaces with similar intentions will have different practices. Monitoring the pH inside a pipe is much different from measuring the pH of a 100 mL water sample, even if the meter itself works much the same way.

Some methods, however, are a little beyond the pale. Let's just say that what I saw at work today almost makes me want to shriek: DON'T DO THAT! Of course, I can't do that, either.

In no particular order:

Let's first deal with the pH meter. The usual kind we see in analytical labs. Most labs have one (or many, as the case may be), and most people knows how to calibrate and use one. It's important to calibrate the meter fairly often (e.g. at least once a day or once every time the meter gets turned on, whichever comes first; more often, within reason, is better). When measuring the pH of a solution, equilibriation is important (especially with the more senile meters), and stirring the sample is much preferable to not stirring it. Stirring the solution using the pH meter is not ok. It's also important to keep the pH meter in a suitable medium (e.g. a suitable buffer, or saturated KCl) when the meter is not in use. Plain water is possibly the worst medium to use. The fact that I mentioned all these things is indicative of what the people at the lab did (or didn't do, as the case may be).

Solutions were made using tap water. Warm tap water. Eek. (Warm water is used for a reason, but tap?)

Analysis of samples were also done with tap water (e.g. as blanks). Double eek.

Drying of glassware involve wiping the inside of the glassware (e.g. beaker) with paper towel. Not kimwipes, paper towel. At least it's not the cheap kind.

Fume hood sash *should* be kept as low as possible, but because some people were too tall, they kept the sash far above what it should be. On the positive side, the fume hoods actually work.

The entire lab smells like nonaqeuous solvents because there was alot of cleaning done outside the fume hood. At least it's not ether.

One saving grace good practice: solutions are made up by mass, not by volume. Most concentrations are in mass percents.

One interesting thing to watch: for one of the solutions, the substance to be dissolved is melted before it is added to water. I have a feeling that this is done to make weighing easier. (Beats chipping chunks out of a bottle, that's for sure.)

(Yes, yes, this is all ranting, but I spent most of the day being useless at work, and there wasn't anything else to do other than making critical observations.)

Postscript 1: I have received a project from work, too. Alas, I have no idea where am I supposed to go with this. The topic is either really specific and trivial, e.g. "dependence of acid concentration on pH", or really complicated and somewhat general, e.g. "what are the factors influencing acid concentration in a complex mixture". Also, some work has been done on the subject already.

Postscript 2: I forgot all my linear algebra. All the cool stuff, anyway (what does "positive definite" have to do with sketching conics again?). *Sad.*