|
 The interview
was conducted on January 2, 2007 by Ms. Carel Thomas, the Marketing Manager
of CP Lab Safety, founded by Dr. Ramin (Ron) Najafi.
Question:
Dr. Najafi, what was your motivation behind inventing the
Safety Ecological
Funnel?
Answer:
In the mid-1990's I was working as a PhD Synthetic Organic Chemist at
a major biotech company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thanks to our management
at the company, safety in the work place
was considered of primary importance.
I got the opportunity to solve a
real problem at the company, and then
continued to offer the solution to others. This is how it all happened:
Typically, my colleagues and I would leave our waste bottles open under
the fume hood and, within days, most of the solvent would evaporate and
be sucked out the hood into the surrounding atmosphere. The ugly consequence
of this unintentional action was the contamination of the air, neighborhoods
and, of course, the rest of our buildings. From time to time, we used
Mercaptans (CH3SH), which resulted in unbearable odors, and got complaints
from the office workers and safety managers in our facility. They could
smell the air contamination, even at a long distance from the laboratories.
Q: How did chemicals from the laboratory fume hood travel all the
way to the office area?
A:
That is a good question. If we used an odorous compound in the lab,
everyone could smell it in the office area. We discovered that the exhaust
of the fume hood and the air intake of the office area were close together
in the buildings, which proved the connectivity of the office area to
the laboratory through air exhaust and air intake on the roof. So, when
we decided to design a safety funnel back in 1994, our goal was to minimize
the evaporation of solvent from the waste bottles to address this health
and safety problem.
Q:
How did you solve the problem?
A:
Although safety was important to our upper management, we had to show
them where the problem originated before they could initiate changes.
As a concerned member of our company Health and Safety Committee, I worked
with our Safety Department to analyze precisely what was being emitted
from the waste bottles over time. In a simple experiment, we marked the
solvent levels in the bottles before going on holiday. During the 10 day
period that the entire site was closed, such an obvious volume of liquid
had evaporated that it was easy to prove that the air contamination in
the laboratory was coming from the open waste containers.
Once
we presented the result to our upper management, there was no doubt in
my mind that they desired a solution to the problem. I am an inventive
person, so I looked for a way to mitigate this and spent many nights and
weekends in my garage working on a solution.
The
key was to create a device that would allow a chemist to dispose of solvent
just as easily as the current open funnel system, but would not permit
evaporation from the bottle. Most importantly, the device would need to
be easy to use so the workers would actually utilize it. I figured that,
if I could create this device, there would be peaceful cooperation between
the chemist who wanted the simplest product, and the health and safety
officers who wanted to contain the fumes.
Our
first prototype was very crude and basic: a funnel with a lid. But over
time it has been adjusted and improved, so that it:
-
is
simple to use
-
contains
fumes and prevents evaporation
-
filters
out large particles in waste solvents
-
prevents
spillage/ over filling with a special air compartment
-
is
an economical way to augment a company's safety plan
During
the last several years, CP Lab Safety's Ecological Funnels
have become mandatory in many Pharmaceutical and Chemical companies. Because
it is designed to prevent evaporation of solvent from the waste bottle,
the ECO Funnel™ reduces exposure of workers to flammable and potentially
toxic substances. Additionally, it eliminates a key component of "fire
triangle," minimizing the chances of fire in the workplace. Safety
officers and fire marshals have found CP Lab Safety's
Ecological Funnels are a key component in a proper fire safety program
in the laboratory. |
