From: DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] NSTA Science Safety blog: Safer Science Labs
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2019 07:28:38 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 4745D55B-A051-4019-AB43-F8CF814AE100**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org


http://blog.nsta.org/2019/08/30/safer-science-labs/

Safer Science Labs

A Manhattan jury recently awarded nearly $60 million in damages to a former Beacon High School student who was badly burned by a teacher‰??s botched chemistry experiment more than five years ago. The student suffered third-degree burns over 30% of his body, including his face, neck, arms, and hand. This happened when his teacher accidentally ignited a fireball during a ‰??Rainbow Experiment‰?? to show the colored flames produced by various salts. The teacher seemingly ignored many safety protocols while performing the experiment, including pouring highly flammable methanol directly from a gallon jug instead of using a beaker and pipette to dispense it.

During the flame jetting of the methanol from the jug, students were seated too close to the demonstration and were burned. This took place in a classroom without a ventilated hood to remove fumes. Several safety deficiencies have often been identified in lab accident reports and warnings for this type of lab demo over several decades:

‰?˘ students sitting too close to the demonstration;
‰?˘ limited, inappropriate, or no personal protective equipment in use;
‰?˘ no safety shield present or fume hood use;
‰?˘ alcohol stock bottles sometimes used to refill hot ceramic dishes or surfaces;
‰?˘ limited or non-existent teacher training in the hazards and risks of using flammable liquids with resultant safety actions.


more at URL above...

---
For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas

Previous post   |  Top of Page   |   Next post



The content of this page reflects the personal opinion(s) of the author(s) only, not the American Chemical Society, ILPI, Safety Emporium, or any other party. Use of any information on this page is at the reader's own risk. Unauthorized reproduction of these materials is prohibited. Send questions/comments about the archive to secretary@dchas.org.
The maintenance and hosting of the DCHAS-L archive is provided through the generous support of Safety Emporium.