Property rooms or evidence rooms are secure areas, typically in a police station, used to store seized or stolen property and criminal evidence until the items can be returned to their rightful owners or used in court as matters of proof. Evidence includes items such as weapons, keys, money, personal objects, prescription and illicit drugs. Many of these items will be returned to their owners, destroyed or auctioned off. Evidence, of course, will be maintained for investigations and legal proceedings until a case is closed. The sophistication and organization of each department’s evidence room varies. Regardless of whether property or evidence is stored in boxes or bins, in envelopes or plastic bags, one thing is certain: each article tells a story and contains clues that can potentially exonerate or indict a suspect.
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More than a half a million people work in laboratories across America. No matter their field of scientific study, lab workers can be exposed to occupational hazards whether chemical, biological or radioactive in nature.
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Since the beginning of baseball’s popularity in the 1850s, fans’ love of the game has only grown fonder. In the over 150 years since, much has changed in the world of organized sports but the baseball bat has largely remained the same. At the outset of baseball, players tended to make their own bats, fashioning them to their particular size and weight preferences.
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Activities such as sharing popcorn while watching a movie, drinking hot cocoa on a cold night, even the simple act of eating crackers may take on a different meaning once one becomes aware of the chemical ingredients that have gone into the flavorings of their favorite snacks.
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In 1872, John W. and Isaiah Hyatt patented the first injection-molding machine which used a plunger to inject plastic into a mold via a heated cylinder.
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Triggers for workplace explosions fall into two categories: fumes and dust. While fumes can often be detected by smell, dust is much more insidious. Dust particles can hide in workshop and factory nooks and crannies and can ignite with only the smallest of sparks.
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The only way to manage contamination is to control the total environment. Airflow and pressure, temperature and humidity, and specialized filtration all must be tightly monitored. While cleanrooms are planned and fabricated, in order to maintain quality, strict protocol and methods need to be enacted.
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Remedying poor workplace indoor air quality is more of a modern notion, one that did not become a driving force within the medical, environmental, and clean air policy communities until many years after pollution as a healthcare concern became a nationwide talking point.
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Nitrous oxide, commonly know as “laughing gas” was first used as an anesthetic in 1844 when Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist, used the drug to dampen the pain receptors of a patient during a tooth extraction. Since then, nitrous oxide, also known as N2O, nitrous, NOS, and nitro (in addition to various street drug terms), Read More
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When most people hear the word “styrene”, they think first about the consumer scare in recent years of chemical leaching into our food and drink via plastic cups and containers. But the real threat – one that affects millions of people on a daily basis – is found at work, not in the kitchen
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