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INTRODUCTION
Responsible laboratory staff will agree that it’s absolutely necessary to know exactly what chemical; apparatus and equipment are present in the laboratory and in what quantities. This is what is meant by the term inventory. Inventories serve many valuable purposes such as
- To comply with the regulatory requirements
- To increase efficiency in the laboratory
- It rids the laboratory of acquiring excess or unused chemicals, apparatus and equipments.
- It enhances efficient implementation of storage of all remaining chemicals in compatible chemical families and ensures isolation and safety storage particularly of hazardous substances.
- It helps in creating and maintaining perpetual inventory of all chemical substances.
- It helps to easily identify substances or items needed for replacement and thus makes easier the requisition process. It also serves as a reminder of items borrowed and owed.
- It helps to check and confirm substances expired and those that need repair and hence enables proper disposal or maintenance.
Laboratory chemicals should not be purchased like any other routine supplies i.e. their stock should not be bought in bulk. Because this will result in purchasing of large quantities of chemicals. Most of them may not be required at that particular time, and may end up being stored in lab store rooms that were never designed to handle such quantities and rarely equipped to meet even the minimum safe storage standards such chemicals may end up expiring even before they are used,
It is in fact wisdom to buy smaller quantities since most of them will be used and there will be less hazards associated with their use and storage.
There is great need to recognize the problems created by lumping hazardous chemicals into the buying routine. These will aggravate and perpetuate the problem of storage and will increase wastage. The laboratory staff should adopts laboratory a chemical requisition policy which should be aimed at completely eliminating or reducing the quantity of some substances purchased and also oversee the requisition process so as to ensure that proper chemicals in proper conditions are bought and stored in proper conditions .
Laboratory inventory taking is a task that requires teamwork and cooperation between the laboratory staff and the administration but students should not be involved in this process.
Each item in the store should be listed by name, the approximate size of the container and the amount still left in the container and its expiry date. If the shelves are loaded, it is advisable to remove some containers in order to see those at the rear end of the shelf.
It’s also appropriate to isolate and scrutinize the bottles carefully as these will enable you to decide which one should stay and which one should be disposed. Disposal should be in accordance with the properties and regulations concerning that particular substance.
Those items which are to remain on the shelf can now be reorganized into their compatible chemical families.