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Posted By janette shaw
Does anyone have any horror stories or pictures of why it is a very stupid idea to mouth pipette. I am particularly looking for anything to do with Silver nitrate.
I thought this practice had gone out with the ark but it seems not!
I know the best practice etc etc just need some additional info for the poster and training
Thanks
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Posted By Diane Thomason Janette, This may have what you want: http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.u...S/SI/silver_nitrate.htmlI would certainly agree that mouth pipetting of ANYTHING went out with the ark. In my experience most organisations do not allow it. I work for a university and we do not allow mouth pipetting in labs. There are so many good pipetting devices around now, there really is no need to mouth pipette. If you are seeing people mouth pipette silver nitrate then frankly I am appalled, and would encourage this practice to be stopped immediately. Hope this helps Diane
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Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Janette
A search on Google will give you plenty of information, including a video (although it wouldn't work for me).
Paul
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Posted By Merv Newman
Check for people with black tongues and lips. That should give you a reliable statistical sampling of how daft it is to mouth pipette AgNO3.
I was taught to do it for chemical solutions and also bacterial dilutions. We spent hours putting little plugs of cotton wool in the mouthpieces so as to act as some kind of barrier to the nasties. (anything from Nitric acid to Pasteurella Pestis)
At the time I was quite young and still (in my opinion) attractive to girls.
But even then (50 years ago) non-contact methods were coming in. No. not as far as the girls were concerned. Though it often seemed like it at the time.
Merv
Sorry monitors. Got a bit frivolous there. Haven't been home for a couple of weeks.
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Posted By jom
Janette,
You might like to approach Kodak. Siver nitrate is used in film making (it's the light-sensitive ingredient). It's a wicked chemical, extremely corrosive to humans.
J.
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Posted By Robert K Lewis http://www.drlockie.com/rem_pics/argen_n.htmJanette - Follow the above link and you will note that the toxicology of silver nitrate is well known. It was a disease found among silversmiths as a conseuqence of nitric acid cleaning of silver before polishing - My wife's great granfather died from it. The mental symptoms were often diagnosed as lunacy! Even at school in the sixties we were clearly told never to mouth pipette it so why this should still be practised I have no idea. Bob
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Posted By janette shaw
Thank you to everyone for their replies so far.
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear in my first email but I am not after a material safety data sheet or the toxicity of silver nitrate. I already have this. The workforce should be educated enough to know better than to mouth pipette and some days I despair! However we have had one near miss report on this (not in the UK) and this is enough to make me think that if it happened in a developed country it may be a problem at our other less developed country locations and with some of our older workforce in some locations.
I am trying to set up an ‘alert’ document that can be used in safety meetings and displayed on notice boards to remind people why we don’t do this practice and that short cuts really aren’t worth it.
I vaguely remember a picture of a blackened tongue in some lectures as Merv suggests but cant find an example anywhere online. This or a short horror story is what Im really after!
Will try Kodak as well - thats a good lead!
thanks
J
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Posted By Peter Longworth
Janette
Back in the mists of time circa 1971 I left school and got my first job as a laboratory assistant for a company that made electric cookers and fires based in Burnley. My job was to sample and undertake quantitative analysis of electroplating solutions and cleaning solutions. I was 17 at the time. Mouth pipetting was routine in those days. Anyway to cut a long story short, I was pipetting 2N caustic soda when a colleague distracted me and I ended up with a mouthful. 2 weeks of nothing but cold milk and cold soup were enough to convince me that mouth pipetting was not the way.
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Posted By Merv Newman
Janette,
I doubt that you will find much on the Internet as mouth pipetting basically went out before www was invented. You could fake it.
And, yes, I too have had a mouthful of sodium hydroxide. But I didn't swallow. So no special diet. And I think mine was "Normal" concentration. Only 40 grams per liter.
Try it as a "quality" problem. Modern pipetting devices can be dialed to give a quite precise measure.
Merv
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