Safety Alert - Safe storage and use of chemicals in the extreme heat

UCL Safety Services require you to confirm that your chemical storage is suitable for this unusual situation.

You should pay particular attention to flammable chemical storage, ensuring that there is suitable ventilation and temperature control. This should be covered in the risk assessments within your department that covers chemical storage.

What needs to be done?

Due to the extreme temperature, storage for both highly flammable and flammable material needs to be checked to ensure that:

1. The temperature cannot rise above the correct storage temperature
2. There is adequate ventilation to ensure an explosive atmosphere will not be created

You should also consider waste chemicals, which may become more volatile in hotter weather.

Whilst risk may be reduced in some cases by storing chemicals externally, you should take care to ensure that there are no ignition hazards, including sunlight, which could foreseeably result in an incident.

If chemicals are stored outside, they must:

• Not be flammable, highly flammable or extremely flammable
• Be stored away from any sources of ignition, including sunlight
• Not be stored in a gas-tight storage vessel (risk of explosion)

When this is not possible, departments may consider temporarily relocating chemical storage subject to a suitable risk assessment and supporting measures being put in place. This may include moving inside the building.

This temporary storage must be reviewed immediately after the current hot weather has passed, to ensure there is long-term plan going forwards in case it is not possible to return the waste to the outside space.

Every department that has flammable, highly flammable or extremely flammable chemical storage or waste should provide a response to biochem@ucl.co.uk with the following information:

• Department name
• Location checked
• Whether the safe storage conditions are met
• Name of person providing the report. 

For further information regarding how to stay safe during the extreme weather please see the UCL News item: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/jul/hot-weather-advice-ucl-staff
 

Which types of chemicals does this apply to?

The definitions of the chemicals that this alert covers are below:

Extremely flammable

Liquids which have a flashpoint* lower than 0°C and a boiling point (or, in the case of a boiling range, the initial boiling point) lower than or equal to 35°C.

Highly flammable

Liquids which have a flashpoint* below 21°C but which are not extremely flammable.

Flammable

Liquids which have a flashpoint* equal to or greater than 21°C and less than or equal to 55°C and which support combustion when tested in the prescribed manner at 55°C.

*The flashpoint is the lowest temperature at which a volatile substance evaporates to form an ignitable mixture with air in the presence of an igneous source and continues burning after the trigger source is removed.