One school accumulated 20 five-pound bottles of mercury. Each year they ordered from the same list that they had used the year before! Not a good idea. You need to know what you have, where it’s located, and who’s responsible for it.
Unfortunately in the world of business, whether it’s in the sciences or any other large global industry, managers don’t have the luxury of being able to sit back, analyze the workplace every four years, and understand just a portion of what’s going on in the competition.
Some chemicals have a short life expectancy. Others will remain good for a long time. Solvents that form peroxides are one example of substances requiring periodic testing. Ethers, vinyl compounds, alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes are some of the