In article .com,
says...

Jim Rozen posted:

"do not sniff unknown gas bottles, that's bad policy"

Jim, sniffing an unknown gas is a standard technique in analytical
chemistry,

No it's not. It may have been at one time, but this is no longer
true. Nobody teaches this any more, and anyone who does this
is foolish and will at some point pay the price for it.

One friend of mine did this with hydrogen sulfide. Fortunately
the bottle rolled way from him when he fell to the floor and he
survived.

Another co-worker said "what smells like garlic?" when he got a
whiff of Arsine. Fortunately he only received some minor kidney
damage from that incident. The usual rule for that is, if you
detect an odor at all, you are in *serious* trouble.

Anyone who picks up an unknown, used gas cylinder and deliberately
whiffs the contents is playing a very, very dangerous game.

Same with pipetting viruses by mouth.

Jim


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