While the Lab is in safe and stable mode, orders for chemicals must be postponed unless essential to ongoing operations. Services such as shipping, receiving, and deliveries to buildings are limited, and delivered chemicals may remain unattended in the absence of staff to receive them.
Please follow this Lab guidance on purchasing, ordering, and storing chemicals:
- Review what has already been ordered, especially chemicals in transit, and check to see if they present any hazard or risk if left unattended in a Lab building. It is possible to have an accumulation of packages in our laboratories or workspaces during this time and we don’t want them to pose a risk.
- Remember Receiving has limited staff and limited space for refrigerated storage of chemicals or samples that must be kept cold.
- Evaluate the hazards of any chemical purchased prior to March 17 that should arrive on-site during the current shelter-in-place order to see if special handling is required to maintain a safe and stable state.
- Pay attention to chemicals that are temperature-sensitive, time-sensitive, restricted, or have a self-accelerating decomposition temperature. If you need help determining safe-storage requirements, email chemsafety@lbl.gov.
- Coordinate any critical items that need special handling or need to be placed in a specific location (such as a freezer).
- Coordinate directly with the Receiving team at 510-486-4935. If there is no answer, contact the Site Operations Center at 510-486-6999.
- You may also come to Building 69 to pick up items, but call first and the package/s will be left on the dock for pickup.
- Do not order or stock up on chemicals in anticipation of a return to normal operations
It is permissible to come to the Lab during safe and stable operations to coordinate the handling of a special item. Entry and exit is only through Blackberry Gate and you will need to present your Lab ID or a government-issued ID such as a driver’s license or passport.
If you have questions or need to make a critical chemical purchase, please email chemsafety@lbl.gov.