Chemical leeching into glassware?

[ClutchDude]

First off, having a SWMBO that is a Graduate neuroscience student is awesome.

When tagging along with her this past weekend to help carry stuff, we came across a huge pile of lab equipment including glassware. Above it had a sign "Free stuff! Take!". I grabbed an ancient dual-motor stirplate and a bunch of capped/non-capped 100-125ml jars/Erlenmeyer Flasks. Perfect for steps of yeast culturing (after petridishes)

It's all pyrex and the caps are all brand-new it looks like. I figure sanitized foil will work for the ones that do not have caps.

My question is does anyone think that the glassware might have anything leeched into it? Most of them are just dusty with none being stained or scratched.

 

[c.n.budz]

If it is Pyrex, I'm 99.9% certain that chemicals can't leech into them. Also, you have to figure if dangerous chemicals had been in them and still pose a problem they wouldn't be giving the stuff away to whomever passes by.

 

[7Enigma]

Nope should be completely fine. You could always do a mock run as anything capable of leeching out should come out in the first run. Just sanitize them with the chemical you use, put some water in (adjust the pH if you really want to be picky) and let it sit for a week or two. After that you could probably eat/drink out of it.

 

[AiredAle]

I'd be careful using those erlenmeyers for two reasons:

Most college/university labs are not as safety conscious as you'd like, so you don't really know that they weren't exposed to anything nasty. But, good cleaning with Oxy-clean, followed by strong chlorine bleach should take care of that issue.

I'd be more worried about the possibility of them having been contaminated with radioactive isotopes. Yah, I know sounds paranoid, but bio-labs do use radio-labeled chemicals, and you don't want a lifetime of free X-rays from your free glassware. Ask SWMBO to check around to see if any radio-labeled stuff is used in the labs there.

 

[xamers]

I don't know, man. Chem labs use all sorts of carcinogens that would, in theory, be washed clean. But is anyone sure? I was a biochem major, by the way.

For my money and cancer-free health, I'd assume purchasing other equipment to hold liquid that I planned to ingest...........

Just my 2 cents.

In the general scheme of things, glassware isn't horribly expensive.

 

[c.n.budz]

My roommate blows glass for a scientific glass company, I meant to ask him about this the other day and forgot. I'll find out tonight.

 

[McKBrew]

My roommate blows glass for a scientific glass company, I meant to ask him about this the other day and forgot. I'll find out tonight.

So your roomate is a glass fluffer? Interesting job.

Sorry, I had to go there.

To the OP, definately see if you can determine the source/use of the glass products and even if they don't work you still have a free stirplate.

 

[shafferpilot]

Wow, that's some paranoid thinking right there. Did you guys know that the most radioactive stuff in us laymen's world is the very air we breathe? There's no chemicals stuck in that glassware either.... That's exactly why they use the stuff in labs. If the glass could be contaminated, it would be one time use only in the lab. They can't have experiments screwed up by cross-contamination... which is why their equipment is glass! I'm betting that they needed to use up some remaining budget and decided to replace perfectly good glass. That sounds like a University department attitude to me

 

[Revvy]

Wow, that's some paranoid thinking right there. Did you guys know that the most radioactive stuff in us laymen's world is the very air we breathe? There's no chemicals stuck in that glassware either.... That's exactly why they use the stuff in labs. If the glass could be contaminated, it would be one time use only in the lab. They can't have experiments screwed up by cross-contamination... which is why their equipment is glass! I'm betting that they needed to use up some remaining budget and decided to replace perfectly good glass. That sounds like a University department attitude to me

Yep....University departmental funding is interesting that way, that's how I got my stirplate, my home PC, and had I not been on a leave of absence to finish my schooling, I would have ended up with an lcd projector a few years back-all the other guys in my department got one when they updated our equipment.

If the stuff were Radioactive and/or a biohazard they wouldn't have been allowed to just put it out for the general public...It would have to have been disposed of in a biohazard container.

 

[c.n.budz]

So your roomate is a glass fluffer? Interesting job.

Sorry, I had to go there.

Yeah, that joke gets thrown at him fairly often. I've always liked, "You're a glass blower? How do you keep from cutting the back of your throat?"

 

[ClutchDude]

The reason they are getting rid of it is because they changing to a new building. From what SWMBO has told me, it's a general purpose building that was designed for most sciences. The flipside is that they are going to have a lot less space.

It's also right outside the buildings stock room, so I'm not thinking it's some staff who dumped and put in a box.