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Who this is for

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This property is not a craft guide. It is for somebody choosing containers where a method already specifies what they must be, and who needs to know how to read that.

The difference from everything else here

Every other property in this library helps somebody decide what to put their product in. Here the decision is frequently made for you, in writing, by the method you are running or the regulation it sits under. The skill is reading that correctly rather than choosing well.

Who actually buys these

Environmental and water testing, food and agricultural labs, teaching labs, small analytical services, quality control benches inside manufacturers, and researchers buying their own consumables. Also field sampling, where the container goes out and comes back.

What the container is doing

Holding a sample without changing it, carrying an identity that cannot be confused with another sample, surviving whatever preservation the method demands, and in some cases going through an autoclave. That is a different job from keeping jam fresh.

Where this property is useful

Understanding why a method names a material, what preservation and holding time mean for your purchasing, what a closure has to do here, and what the workplace rules are. It is orientation for buying, not instruction for analysis.

Where it is not

It does not tell you which method to run or how to run it. If your work is regulated, the method governs and this property is subordinate to it everywhere they touch.

The one thing to take away

A container is not neutral. Choosing the convenient bottle rather than the specified one produces numbers that look exactly like good numbers and are not, which is the worst failure mode available.

The vocabulary is the barrier, not the chemistry

Most of the difficulty for somebody new is that the requirements are written in codes and cross-references rather than sentences. Once P, FP, G and PA are familiar, a Table II row reads in seconds, which is most of what this property is trying to give you.

References

40 CFR 136.3, Table II — Required Containers, Preservation Techniques, and Holding Times, which prescribes the container material, the preservation and the maximum holding time per parameter. Footnote 1 defines the codes: “P” is polyethylene, “FP” is fluoropolymer (PTFE), “G” is glass, “PA” is any plastic made of a sterilizable material. law.cornell.edu
29 CFR 1910.1450, Occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals in laboratories, which requires a written Chemical Hygiene Plan covering standard operating procedures, control measures, fume hood performance, training, medical consultation and a designated Chemical Hygiene Officer, reviewed at least annually. law.cornell.edu
Written from federal regulation, not from a bench. Where a method specifies a container, a preservative or a holding time, the method governs and nothing here overrides it. Read the method you are running rather than a summary of what methods generally say.