The American Chemical Society has posted videos from the National Meeting held in August in Philadelphia, including those from the Division of Chemical Health & Safety’s session on “Chemical Safety in Public Policy”: Sustainable chemistry and public policy Evaluating risks – Understanding multiple perspectives What you need to know about TSCA (Toxic Substances Control Act) reform California’s Safer Consumer Products Program: Asking the questions Some government relation lessons from the development of subpart K (for managing hazardous waste at academic laboratories) Influence of litigatio ..read more

The ruptured reboiler. Credit: Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board Costs are mounting for Williams Olefins following a 2013 fire at a plant in Geismar, La., that killed two workers—Zach Green, 29, and Scott Thrower, 47—and injured 167 others. In the past few months, juries have awarded eight injured workers a total of $26.9 million after attorneys “argued that Williams, key management figures and others had known for years that one of two reboilers used in the refinery process was isolated from pressure relief—which meant there was a risk of over-pressurization and explosion,” t ..read more

Here’s what was in the August-September issue of the Journal of Chemical Health & Safety. The theme of the issue was implementation of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s Laboratory Standard, drawn from a symposium held at the Fall 2015 ACS meeting in Boston. Editorial: The Lab Standard at 25, by Harry J. Elston Strategy of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research to influence laboratory safety among its funded researchers, by Steve Rupkey (Argonne National Laboratory) Reflections of a former OSHA official on the laboratory standard, by Fred Malaby The impact of OSHA ..read more

Probably all the reasons behind lab fires, too. Credit: City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management “The average number of reported residential fires on Thanksgiving Day is more than double the average number of fires on all other days,” says the City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management. “Unattended cooking is the leading contributing factor in cooking fires and fire deaths.” To help keep your Thanksgiving fire free, here are some safety tips from the Consumer Product Safety Commission: Never leave food on the stove or in the oven unattended. Avoid wearing loose fitting c ..read more

From AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety, recent “Process Safety Beacons”: Process safety in the laboratory – “Wherever you work – in a process plant, a research laboratory, a pilot plant, a quality control laboratory, a maintenance shop, or anywhere else – make sure you fully understand the hazards associated with all of your materials, equipment, and operations. You can’t manage the risk from a hazard that you don’t know about!” Understanding chemical compatibility – “This is important information to understand so you can take proper precautions to make sure that incompatible material ..read more

Here’s what was in the July-August issue of the Journal of Chemical Health & Safety: Editorial: Rainbows revisited and unintended consequences, by Harry J. Elston Promoting a culture of safety in academic chemistry, statements by American Chemical Society presidential candidates, Peter K. Dorhout (Kansas State University) and Thomas R. Gilbert (Northeastern University), candidates for American Chemical Society president Evaluation of safety climate at a major public university, by Jerry E. Steward, Vincent L. Wilson, and Wei-Hsung Wang (Louisiana State University) A case history of requali ..read more

Credit: Shutterstock At In the pipeline last week, Derek asked: So here’s a question to finish off with: what’s the worst/stupidest/most potentially catastrophic chemical storage you’ve had the displeasure of seeing? I think my own might have been when I came across about half a kilo of chromium trioxide baking in an open dish in a drying oven, the same one that people dumped solvent-soaked glassware into regularly. Or maybe it was the moment during my first year of grad school, studying at a little cubicle in an unused lab, and looking up to see that there was an old kilo jar of benzidine ..read more

An employee of Canada’s national animal health lab is in isolation for 21 days following possible exposure to the Ebola virus, news agencies report. The employee was working with pigs that had been invected with Ebola to test how the disease responds to treatment with immune response proteins, CBC reports. The employee was going through standard decontamination procedures before leaving the lab when he or she noticed a split in the seam of their protective suit. Ebola is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids. “There is no reason to believe the employee involved in Monday’s incident was i ..read more

A handy infographic on 2,4-DNPH by Compound Interest At least 40 U.K. schools have called in bomb disposal teams to dispose of improperly stored 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (2,4-DNPH or 2,4-DNP), Chemistry World reports. 2,4-DNPH is used in a practical exam for U.K. students to complete their “A-level” to complete high school. Students would react an aldehyde or ketone with 2,4-DNPH to produce a colored 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone. The experiment had been discontinued but was recently reintroduced. Some schools “have retrieved questionable 2,4-DNPH ‘from the dusty back shelves of the chemical ..read more

From C&EN’s letters to the editor this week, a response to the “Chemical safety is always in season” comment from a month ago: My experience as a lab manager has shown that when consequences are well articulated and executed in response to a safety violation—whether or not there was an injury—this can be an effective deterrent to the next person who dares to mouth a pipette, perform a reaction outside a proper functioning hood, or even repeatedly not wear the required personal protective equipment called for in a standard operating procedure. Read the full letter for more ..read more