How can one safely store toluene to avoid occupational exposure from leaks ect.

[d1nach]

Toluene is a very common organic solvent used in chemistry, painting, and many industrial jobs. I know to mimimize exposure as possible and if say spray painting a chair doing it outside. Leaving to let it dry instead of staying around the air the vapors are extremely toxic to the nervous system and potentially fatal. But my question is toluene containing products in my garage come in all kinds of containers. So, is pet or pp plastic in a closed bottle sufficient to keep fumes from leaking from the bottle.

Is odor really always noticable? Could being in a job like mechanic prevent you from detecting leaks ?

Any info on how to store it so that i dont cause damage to my nervous system from chronic low exposure would be appreciated

 

[Keif' Richards]

Hey D1nach, apologies for closing down the other thread regarding Toluene. I jumped to conclusions when I read the title, which isn't good obviously. For anybody who wasn't present or wishes they were, I basically got all pissed off at our man here for creating a thread about Toluene, which I assumed was another thread on solvent huffing, which is a Bluelight no-no. If I had read through more carefully, I could've avoided looking like a douche. Sad face and apologies D1Nach, looks like you're more into Harm Reduction than Keif'...

Is storing it outside not an option?

 

[szuko000]

When I buy organic solvents they come in metal jugs. The seal on the jugs is good enough that I can not detect xylene unless i open the jug. Xylene is something humans can pick up on readily. I would imagine toluene is similar though ive never worked with it. I would store any organic solvent outside or in a well vented area remember if you can smell it its getting in your blood and you would do well to avoid that whenever possible.

When I use to have to store things in less obvious places i would put a plastic grocery bag and put that in a trash bag and then put it in a closet in an effort to minimize the vapors in the air i breathe.

 

[Slow_Mobius]

A tightly sealed reagent container would probably work fine. Maybe you can parafilm the lids as an extra precaution.

The containers in which they come should (at least I would hope) be sufficient, and there might be only a very small amount of toluene in some of the products. The seal is only really important if you're storing something that has a pretty high vapor pressure

 

[T. Calderone]

I found a chemical storage site that will probably be able to help you with this question:

http://www.uschemicalstorage.com/news/toluene-storage/ (they have a toll free number, too)

I don't see how this relates to drugs so I'm closing.