Oh dear

For me, it's hard to read this Reddit post without both a bit of recognition from my past, as well as the desire to tell OP to run away quickly...: 

I've just taken over a 'lab', AKA the filthy garage that makes numbers, and want to turn it into a Lab. Halp!

I've just got a job at a waste oil processing plant. It's tiny. 6 people work here in total, with only myself (the new Site Chemist) and one other using the lab. 

Currently, the lab is a tiny cupboard containing an old XRF, KF, balance and a couple of spectrometers. Everything is coated in oil. The 'test methods' are stored in the plant guy's head, and there is basically nothing written down regarding SOPs, methods, calibrations, safety etc. 

As the site chemist, I've been given this cupboard and also the garage that contains the cupboard to turn into a fully functional, legitimate lab. Naturally, the first thing I did was think about safety and, accordingly, I asked the plant guy to stop washing sample jars out using chloroform and disposable nitrile gloves (no, we don't have a fume hood). 

What next? Of course, this is now my job and I do in fact have a plan, but do any of you guys have any tips on setting up a 'new' lab? Any resources I will find useful? I'd just like to make sure I don't miss anything out regarding safety, good practice etc. 

e: For info, I'm also responsible for health and safety for the whole site as well as environmental monitoring of everything we dump. Just trying to get a handle on the lab, which is what I know best, before I start making sweeping changes to everyone else's work areas. The lab is a mess because there was no chemist here before now.

 Yikes, this would not be a good situation to be in...

Warning Letter of the Week: busted gaskets edition

A friendly missive to the CEO of Alchymars ICM SM Private Limited in Chennai, India from the good folks at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:  

2. Failure to properly maintain equipment and to keep complete records of major equipment maintenance.
Our investigator found damaged product-contact surfaces on your multi-product equipment. For example, the manhole gasket of [redacted]111 was deteriorating and wrapped in peeling tape. A gasket on the [redacted]102 was also cracked in one area and wrapped in peeling tape.

Your SOP/ENG/39-1, Gasket Management for Equipments and Pipelines which are in Direct Contact with the Product, section 4.18, requires you to replace gaskets in critical areas, including gaskets for [redacted]111 and [redacted]102, [redacted]. Your firm was unable to provide gasket replacement records for this equipment during the inspection.

Furthermore, the most recent records of your firm checking the condition of the gaskets for [redacted]102 were from January 2017, more than [redacted] before our inspection.

This is a repeat observation from our February 2015 inspection. We also note that you have found deteriorating gaskets to be the root cause for finished API particle complaints.

Your response is inadequate. You stated that the “involved gasket was immediately substituted” but did not evaluate all other gaskets on your manufacturing equipment. You indicated that you will update your procedure to require a supervisor walk-through to assess product contact surfaces, but did not include sufficient detail (e.g., frequency of equipment inspection). You also failed to address the lack of gasket maintenance records.

Gaskets are cheap, aren't they? Better a couple of bucks for gasket than particles in your API... 

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 521 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 521 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On February 26, 2017, the 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 566 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Try the open thread.

Want to talk about starting your new group? That open discussion is here.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 20 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 20 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

What to do about Nick Kristof?

Over the weekend, a rather bizarre column (calmly titled "What Poisons Are In Your Body?") from the New York Times' Nick Kristof where he tests his urine for endocrine disruptors: 

Finally, I heard back from Silent Spring Institute. I figured this was a report card I had aced. I avoid all that harmful stuff. In my columns, I had advised readers how to avoid it. 

Sure enough, I had a low level of BPA, best known because plastic bottles now often boast “BPA Free.” 

But even a diligent student like me failed the test. Badly. I had high levels of a BPA substitute called BPF. Ruthann Rudel, a toxicologist who is the head of research at Silent Spring, explained that companies were switching to BPF even though it may actually be yet more harmful (it takes longer for the body to break it down). BPF is similar to that substance that made those mice do back flips.

I am a little at wit's end to understand how to help intelligent people like Mr. Kristof see past their clear fear of chemicals, the distrust they have of chemical companies and their seeming dismissal of regulatory agencies. It seems to me that he is all too credulous to the claims of organizations like the Silent Spring Institute that are incentivized to generate as much fear and doubt around chemicals as possible.

Readers, what do you think? 

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: "Harnessing the power of shape-shifting polymersHarnessing the power of shape-shifting polymers" (article by Manny I. Fox Morone)
• Jessica Marshall, on the dyes behind the Indian festival Holi
• 3M, paying $850 million to Minnesota, regarding fluoropolymers (article by Marc Reisch)
• Pretty cool fluorination chemistry from the Ritter group (article by Bethany Halford)
• Less neodymium in Toyota magnets is pretty cool to see (article by Melody M. Bomgardner)
• Interesting data from the Council on Graduate Schools regarding graduate degrees in chemistry (article by Andrea Widener)

GC vials

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• Ash, on "Why the world needs more Leo Szilards"
• Jyllian, on the latest science-oriented emojis
• Kat Day, on "How bad is BPA, really?"
• Sustainable Nano on "Can gold melt at room temperature?"
• Mark Lorch on chemistry on Minecraft
• Beth Haas on teaching on her feet
• The latest from All Things Metathesis

An open invitation to all interested in writing a blog, a hobby that will bring you millions thousands hundreds tens of dollars joy and happiness. Send me a link to your post, and I'd be happy to put it up.

Have a good weekend!

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 115 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list has 115 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

22 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 14 new positions posted for February 18 and 8 positions for February 20.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 102 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 102 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

"The University of Alberta, Southern California"

Courtesy of someone at In the Pipeline, the absolute weirdest article about a fake university you will read today. 

Anyone have a used Dionex ICS 1100?

Got a used Dionex ICS 1100?

If so, contact Deepa Mohan at deepa.shb99@gmail.com

Job posting: staff scientist, Takeda, San Diego

From the inbox:

The Staff Scientist, Medicinal Chemist is responsible for designing and synthesizing small-molecules for drug discovery projects in order to advance those programs into preclinical development. 

POSITION ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• The Staff Scientist, Medicinal Chemist develops novel and efficient synthesis strategies and coordinates research strategies and activities with team members
• Designs synthetic targets for lead discovery and optimization to address issues of target potency, selectivity, animal pharmacokinetics, and in vivo efficacy  
• Utilizes contemporary structure-based methods, structure-activity relationships, and medicinal chemistry principles in the proposal and execution of innovative chemistry strategies...

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS:

• Ph.D. in Chemistry with 0-3 years  of relevant chemistry research experience, OR
• MS in Chemistry with minimum 10  years of relevant chemistry research experience, OR
• BS in Chemistry with minimum 12 years of relevant chemistry research experience

Link here. Best wishes to those interested. 

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News: 

• Cover: targeted protein degradation (article by Lisa Jarvis) 
• Man, those are some kooky cool molecules.
• Michael Torrice on vaccines for addictive drugs
• Machine learning for organic synthesis from the Doyle group (article by Beth Halford)
• "Cryptocurrency for your genome" (article by Ryan Cross) 
• is there anything the blockchain can't do? 
• (that's a joke)
• Some d00d yapping about leaving your job

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 514 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 514 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On February 12, 2017, the 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 562 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Try the open thread.

Want to talk about starting your new group? That open discussion is here.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 19 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 19 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

View From Your Hood: French snows edition

Credit: Augustin Peneau

From reader Augustin Peneau: "White all over the trees and roofs, a peaceful morning at Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (ICSN) in Gif-sur-Yvette (France)"

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in (with a caption and preference for name/anonymity, please) at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.) 

Radio show: Melissa Vaught (aka biochembelle), Saturday, February 17, 11 PM Eastern

Looking forward to talking with Dr. Melissa Vaught (a.k.a. biochembelle, author of the longtime blog "Ever on & on") on Saturday, February 17, at 11 PM Eastern.

What would you like us to cover? Some topics will be pre-chosen (lots of talk about the life sciences and postdoctoral fellows), some are up to you.

Leave suggestions in the comments, or e-mail me: chemjobber@gmail.com

That's some high-grade horse pucky

From my weekly dose of pain known as a Google Alert for this term "skills gap", this gem in an article titled "US economy faces impending skills gap": 

...Pfizer, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, highlights both the demands of the new economy and the shortfalls from the labor force. 

At Pfizer’s 17 manufacturing sites across the country, a low-level technician once followed a set of scripted steps to mix individual batches of medicine. Those batches would be tested in a lab to ensure each dose would meet the company’s standards. 

Today, a technician operates computers that mix and analyze new batches of medicine instantly. The technician who once just needed to follow a recipe now needs to know a little bit about chemistry, biology, data analysis and lab work. 

“The technician role has become much more high tech, in that the operators are monitoring the online data and they are manipulating the control systems and making online decisions based on real-time data,” said Kevin Nepveux, Pfizer’s vice president of global manufacturing services. “That requires a different skill set for the operators.”

Call me a perennial skeptic, but this sounds like baloney.  

Got a career dilemma?

We are hoping to start a "CJ's mailbag" for my column at Chemical and Engineering News. Please feel free to write me (chemjobber@gmail.com) if you have a career-oriented dilemma that you'd like me to write about in the magazine. Also, you can submit your questions with this handy web form. Thanks!