On February 3, 2023, a train derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio.1-2 Five of the train cars were carrying vinyl chloride (Figure 1), a compound that is mostly used to make PVC.
I have always wanted to try the mercury beating heart experiment, in which a drop of liquid mercury is made to throb like a beating heart.1 However, I have never conducted this experiment due to the issues associated with mercury toxicity.
A hint of smoke and sulfur lingered in the school hallway. I heard the question "What's that smell?" from a staff member or two, but assured them it had only been my middle grade science students. With matches.
//Sunday, October 14, 2018•Maria Gallardo-Williams
The story of the Radium Girls starts right after WWI. At first, the job of painting glow-in-the-dark watch dials seems like a dream come true for the young women working at the United States Radium Corporation in New Jersey.
It’s the beginning of a brand new school year, and a brand new opportunity to capture students’ interest in chemistry and the joy of lab-based sciences! In thousands of chemistry classrooms across the country, teachers will be planning labs, demos, and ways to have students be engaged and excited about learning.
Is your school district providing OSHA required safety training to teachers and other staff that will be in the science labs in your building? School laboratories can be a dangerous place. Many states require that school districts provide at least initial safety training before working with students in the laboratory.
The theme of the April issue of the Journal of Chemical Education (JCE), is Placing Chemistry in a World Context. Environmental science, green chemistry, waste management and service learning are few of the topics included in the issue.
At some point in the late 90s, I suggested to my principal that a chemical inventory should be completed and many chemicals should be disposed of. I had inherited a large amount of chemicals when I took the chemistry teacher position (the only one in the district).
The ACS Committee on Chemical Safety has released the 8th edition of "Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories. The publication provides advice for first- and second-year university students. Free access is available in PDF format at www.acs.org/SACL.
