Hi all,
Thanks for your responses - hand sanitizer and wiping down all shared surfaces (including sample changer belts, depth gauges, spinners) are the popular solutions. At McGill the door to the room is propped open (to prevent all users Below is an email from Roberto Gil to his users at CMU which seemed the most complete:
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Dear NMR Users,
Your health is our top priority and we want to make sure the everybody stay safe while using the NMR Instruments. The lab is a shared instrumentation facility and we have significant traffic in and out of the room 24/7.
A new analysis found that the virus can remain viable in the air for up to 3 hours, on copper for up to 4 hours, on cardboard up to 24 hours and on plastic and stainless steel up to 2 to 3 days. Click Here<
https://www.livescience.com/how-long-coronavirus-last-surfaces.html?fbclid=IwAR3vyeKh2ay60U95DKg6E2V3labvtYK0NzDkq1vQjP5zgFHgnyvp6zJWKmk>
The NMR room is well ventilated to prevent the accumulation of helium and nitrogen gas, hence it will also help to remove the virus from the air in the room.
My major concern is that users touch the same computer keyboard and mouse when queuing experiments in IconNMR, as well as sample they are in contact with plastic spinners and with the sample gauge.
>From now on, practice the following safety precautions when queuing samples in the NMR lab.
Regarding Social Distance Practices:
- DO NOT VISIT THE NMR ROOM IF YOU ARE NOT RUNNING EXPERIMENTS.
- NO MORE GATHERING IN THE NMR ROOM.
- MINIMIZE THE TIME YOU SPEND INSIDE THE NMR ROOM (BUT DON'T RUN!!!).
- ONE PERSON PER INSTRUMENT AT A TIME IN THE ROOM WHILE QUEUING SAMPLES.
WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE ENTERING AND AFTER LEAVING THE NMR ROOM. This is very important since you will touch a keyboard and mouse that is used by everybody. We will try to sanitize the keyboard, the mouse, the door knobs, the sample gauge, the ladder rail often.
- YOUR ARE ALLOWED TO USE NEW DISPOSABLE GLOVES IN THE NMR ROOM. PUT THEM BEFORE ENTERING THE ROOM. DISPOSE THEM WHEN LEAVING THE ROOM.
Remember: NEVER TOUCH THE SPINNER WITH YOUR HANDS
Follow this procedure before putting the sample in the sample changer:
- Insert the NMR tube in the spinner while it is in the box of spinners
- Grab the sample gauge with a kimwipe, pick the NMR tube from the glass (don't touch the spinner) and insert it in the sample gauge to adjust the proper sample height. Dispose the kimwipe in the garbage bin.
Stay safe, wash your hand and practice social distance.
From: Robin Stein <robin.stein_at_mcgill.ca>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2020 6:23 PM
To: ammrl_at_ammrl.org
Subject: AMMRL: nmr in the time of coronavirus
Hi all,
Our university is trying to figure out what to do and one thing I am wondering about is how easy it would be to have people share a sample changer instrument and yet minimize interactions with each other. We have a Bruker SampleXpress (TopSpin 3.6 pl 2) and a Varian SMS-100 (VnmrJ 4.2). I would be thinking something like:
Students put fresh gloves on when they enter the NMR lab (one student at a time).
Students put samples in spinners and into autosampler, and pick up their old samples.
Students discard gloves when leaving.
To get information into the sample changer, there are two steps that could be useful:
1. Use the web server (Bruker)
2. Students email me sample information. I put that information into a extset file (Bruker) and the experiment is run.
Data is emailed to students.
Is there a way to do something like the web server or the extset file with VnmrJ 4.2?
Other ideas welcome. I'll put out a summary.
Thank you - and stay safe, everyone.
Robin
Robin Stein
MC2 NMR/EPR Facility Manager, McGill University
Room 35B, Otto Maass Chemistry Building
801 Sherbrooke St. W
Montreal, QC H3A 0B8
514 398-6219
https://mcgill.ca/mc2
Received on Tue Mar 17 2020 - 04:58:30 MST