safety

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.

In the Especially JCE: June 2018

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.

I believe many teachers have started teaching. Best of luck. Our UK teachers start in September, when the weather inexplicably becomes hotter and drier!

(A look at a workplace exposure limits found in MSDS sheets)

Whenever a serious incident takes place in a school chemistry laboratory or classroom, fire and safety officers often pontificate on the incident by quoting the Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). However, how many of you have read such documents in full? In UK schools we have perhaps 200 to 400 chemicals on the shelves. Have you read the MSDSs for each chemical?

I recently spoke by email with Bob Worley as he prepared an article, But Surely That’s Banned, sharing some thoughts on chemical safety for teachers from his UK perspective. Part of the discussion revolved around our shared concern for using methanol for demonstrations. The Fire Tornado demonstration, that was part of the September 2014 Nevada museum incident, can easily be found in written form and video in a quick Google search.

The Royal Society of Chemistry became increasingly frustrated in 2004 when academics (the “when I was a lad” variety”), National Tabloids (it’s “‘elf un safety gone mad” variety), and many teachers were quoting health & safety fears as the reasons not to do practical science work and demonstrations.

  Statement from the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety regarding the “Tornado Experiment” Explosion in a Science Museum in Reno, Nevada