The Chicago ACS Section recently adopted the practice of starting our board and dinner meetings with a "Safety First" moment. The monthly safety moment is then also shared in written form with our entire membership through the section publication, The Chemical Bulletin. I am grateful to Peggy Schott, longtime section officer and board member, for volunteering the following safety topic for our March meetings. Peggy forwarded supporting information from her colleague, Professor Douglas Philp, at Northwestern University, and Dr. Philp kindly gave permission to share the note shown below with the CHAS list serve as well.
Thanks,
Irene Cesa
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Some of you may already be aware of the significant fire that broke out in the Biomedical Sciences Building at the University of St Andrews in February. The fire severely damaged four labs. The fire spread from a middle floor upwards and downwards through the building. Water damage from the fire hoses was extensive. Here is an initial report on the incident from the BBC website.
Whilst the formal investigation is currently ongoing, it appears that the source of the fire was an incident with a flammable base bath that was being used to clean glassware containing a small amount of potassium. The ensuing situation could not be contained and controlled by the personnel in the lab and the result is significant destruction which resulted in closing of the building. Repairs and renovation are expected to take 18 to 24 months.
Professor Douglas Philp of Northwestern University, who still had a laboratory in the building at St Andrews, shared this information for several reasons:
1. When considering an operation in a laboratory you must always make an assessment of the process risk as well as the chemical hazard. If you cannot contain the worst case scenario in terms of process risk, you should not be doing the experiment.
2. If faced with an incident involving fire, raise the alarm immediately, make sure that everyone in the area evacuates and then, and only if it does not place you at excessive risk, try to contain the fire. Make sure that you know the location of the emergency exits, the fire alarm activation pads and fire fighting equipment (if any) in the area you are working.
3. You should understand that you are at the mercy of the weakest link in terms of safety. The incident started in an area entirely remote from the lab operated by myself. However, there has been very significant damage to our lab and the equipment in it.
I am sharing this information with you to illustrate to you how quickly a seemingly "trivial" or "small" incident can spiral out of control and to, hopefully, make you consider carefully the consequences of inappropriate safety measures=E2=80"assess very carefully any hazardous operation you are planning to perform both in terms of chemical hazard and in terms of the process risk, including the potential impacts on others.
