Why wasn't the educator taught fundamental laboratory safety? The answer to that is simple, Leslie:

Colorado does not require an academic major in the subjects being taught. From the Colorado Department of Education site on initial licensure of teachers:

An Initial Teacher License requires that an applicant submit his/her legal name, address and social secuirty number. Once these criteria are met, an initial license may be issued to an applicant who (among other things, HJE):

=B7         Has demonstrated professional competencies in the subject areas by completing 24 semester hours of course credit as demonstrated through transcript evaluation, or passage of the Colorado State Board of Education-approved content assessment relevant to the area of endorsement sought.

Yes - that's right - 24 hours in your area of "endorsement." The last time I checked, Gen Chem/Organic with labs was 16 of those hours. Fill that up with courses like "Seminar" and "Environmental chemistry" or "Chemistry for educators" and you can get 24 hours pretty quickly.

I was none-too-pleased about this when I wrote the March/April 2014 JCHAS editorial.

Harry

From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Leslie Coop
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 1:34 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Colorado methanol fire case