I have often thought that the most toxic material in a synthesis lab is the silica. The body can expel organic solvents in a few days as they will be soluble in one tissue or another. Silica won't dissolve unless heated to 180 °C or placed in acid/base. This means once it is in your body, it stays there and if it lodges itself in the lungs it becomes a nucleation point for tumors.
A colleague from another University showed me this neat way to load silica into a column without breathing any of it in.
Get a new 500 mL acetone squirt bottle, cut the top off and use a small rubber septum for the lid. Then fill it with silica and label the bottle. When dispensing into a column, the lid makes a seal which prevents airborne particles from escaping. Put the lid back on loosely as you turn the container upright to prevent a small puff of silica into the air.
A colleague from another University showed me this neat way to load silica into a column without breathing any of it in.
Get a new 500 mL acetone squirt bottle, cut the top off and use a small rubber septum for the lid. Then fill it with silica and label the bottle. When dispensing into a column, the lid makes a seal which prevents airborne particles from escaping. Put the lid back on loosely as you turn the container upright to prevent a small puff of silica into the air.