"Safety First" Minute
Environmental Lab Safety Committee
ACS Chicago Section
On Monday, July 1, 2019, a jury in New York City awarded $59 million in damages to a former Beacon High School student who was severely burned during a classroom demonstration involving methyl alcohol. Both the teacher and the school were found liable for this tragic accident that occurred in January 2014. News reports stated that the accident occurred when the demonstration "went awry." However, the accident was in fact entirely predictable. In an apparent attempt to "restart" the flame test demonstration, the teacher poured additional alcohol into a glass vessel that was still hot (and possibly even still alight) from a previous run. Alcohol vapor ignited upon reaching the heat or flame source, and the resulting flame "flashed back" following the stream of vapor and liquid into the large bottle of methyl alcohol. This phenomenon, known as "flame jetting," has been documented for gasoline and other flammable liquids in a special video warning produced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The methyl alcohol classroom demonstration and similar ones involving combustion of flammable liquids have been the subject of numerous warnings from the American Chemical Society, the National Science Teachers Association, the US Chemical Safety Board, and the ATF over the past five years. Despite continued and repeated warnings from all of these agencies, accidents of this type continue to occur with tragic regularity. Indeed, in the 12-month period immediately following the Beacon High School accident, when the safety alert warnings should still have been very "fresh" in people's minds, six more combustion-related accidents took place across the country.
With this month's "Safety First" Minute, I want to remind all of us of the necessity of carrying out a comprehensive hazard and risk assessment for every lab activity and demonstration in any venue, whether classroom or research lab. The most dangerous thing we can do is to rely on past experience to protect ourselves from harm. After all, one of the things both the school and the teacher said in their defense in the courtroom in the Beacon HS case was that she had done this experiment multiple times in the past without incident!
The ACS offers numerous resources to increase the safety awareness of chemists and chemistry educators. If you interact with any teachers, please share with them the one-page document, "Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations," which was prepared by the Safety Committee for the Division of Chemical Education. Please help ensure that students will always be safe in chemistry labs by encouraging teachers you know to follow these guidelines AT ALL TIMES.
Thank you!
Submitted by Irene Cesa
August 2019
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU> On Behalf Of Samuella Sigmann
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2019 10:58 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Is this another?
Sure looks like it could be. Obviously something to do with mishandling of solvents.
This is an isolated incident and all safety measures will be reviewed.
I would beg to differ that this is an "isolated incident".
S-
On 8/7/2019 10:49 AM, NEAL LANGERMAN wrote:
This just came from my news scanner
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