Category Archives: Reference material

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Explosive precursor safety: An application of the Deming Cycle for continuous improvement

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The Editor’s Spotlight for the January / February 2019 issue of the Journal of Chemical Health and Safety is shining on: Explosive precursor safety: An application of the Deming Cycle for continuous improvement by Hugo Schmidt who is affiliated with Cambridge CARES in Singapore.

The abstract for this article is:
General safety regulations need to follow a ‘one size fits all’ model, which may lead them to inadequately address challenges posed by different individual use scenarios. Hence, the regulatory requirements are best regarded as an essential minimum level of safety; further improvement essential. Discussed here is a model for developing an explosive precursor safety system. With the Singapore legal requirements for an explosive precursor as the minimum, the Deming Cycle for continuous improvement was used to develop a fully mature safety program, across two Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles that incorporated feedback and observation of continuous practice.

You can access this article at the link below and other articles from
the JCHAS web page

Explosive precursor safety: An application of the Deming Cycle for continuous improvementDownload
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A note on chemical storage cabinets

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While talking with our chemistry lab coordinator about the best approach to organizing their chemical storage cabinets, I made an interesting observation that might be of interest to other laboratory workers and safety professionals.

Our laboratory building was renovated in the 2004 and the labs were newly constructed then. So the cabinetry is about 14 years old, which I consider relatively new for laboratory architecture and casework.

The chemical storage provided under the fume hoods in our teaching labs consist of two wooden cabinets – one for storage of corrosive chemicals, which is ventilated, and the other for storage of flammable cabinets, which is not (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Fume hoods and storage cabinets; ventilated corrosives cabinet on left and unventilated flammables cabinet on right

One particular cabinet has been used for long term storage (i.e. more than one year) of a variety of concentrated acids. While we were looking inside that cabinet, we noticed that the hinges had corroded in an interesting way (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Upper hinges of the acid storage cabinet were significantly more corroded than the lower hinges. See graphic at top of the page for a close-up view of the various hinges. From left to right is the upper hinge and lower hinge of the acid storage cabinet; the third hinge was in an adjacent corrosives cabinet.

Figure 3: On closer inspection, we realized that the ventilation provided for the cabinet only served the lower shelf. While both shelves stored similar amounts of acids, the ventilation provided was not serving the top shelf well. And 10 or so years of acid storage had taken a toll on the cabinet’s hardware.

I learned three things from this observation:

  • Air moves where it wants to, not where you think it will (see, for example, the presentation on air flow in flammable storage cabinets done at NIOSH and presented at the CHAS fall meeting in 2017).
  • Volatile chemicals don’t stay in their containers as long as you think they might. A Sigma-Aldrich representative once told me that they expected their caps to contain volatile chemicals for about a year.
  • Planning your long term chemical storage involves a variety of considerations beyond chemical compatibility – air flow patterns among them.

I’d be interested to hear if from people have similar war stories or other practical observations related to chemical storage in labs.

Ralph Stuart, Chemical Hygiene Officer
Keene State College
ralph.stuart@keene.edu

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CHAS Lifetime Achievement Award

Download the Nomination Application Form for this Award Here: [Click to Download CHAS Lifetime Achievement Nomination Form in Word format]

Statement of Award Purpose

The Lifetime Achievement Award from the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety recognizes a lifetime of dedication and service to the American Chemical Society, the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety, and the field of chemical health and safety.

Award

Engraved plaque including name of recipient

The recipient of this award is expected to deliver a 20 – 30-minute keynote presentation at the CHAS Awards Symposium at the ACS Fall national meeting in the year that they receive the award. The presentation may be on any topic related to chemical safety.

Description of Eligible Nominees

The awardee must be a member of the Division of Chemical Health and Safety and of ACS and must have been an active member of the Division for at least five years. The awardee will have shown support for the goals and activities of CHAS, the ACS, and the chemical health and safety community; and will have, through personal effort, helped CHAS and the ACS reach those goals.

This recognition is not expected to be awarded annually, but only in cases when an extraordinary candidate is nominated. More than one award may be granted if the CHAS Awards Selection Subcommittee determines that there are multiple deserving nominees

Required Support for Nomination

The nomination must include a cover letter from the nominator describing why the nominee is deserving of this award. The nomination cover letter must describe how the awardee has shown support for the goals and activities of CHAS, the ACS, and the chemical health and safety community; and how the nominee has, through personal effort, helped CHAS and the ACS reach those goals. The nomination application form must include a brief biographical summary of the nominee and a list of any relevant publications authored by the nominee.

Eligible Sources of Nominations

  • Self-nomination
  • Any CHAS division member
  • Subordinate (student, employee, etc.)
  • Superior (supervisor, director, etc.)
  • Peer

Additional Information about this Award

This award was established in 2018 by Doug Walters, PhD. in his final year serving in the role of CHAS Awards Chair. The following year, Dr. Walters was one of two recipients of this award.

Previous Winners

  • Robert H. Hill, Jr., 2021
  • Laurence Doemeny, 2018
  • Neal Langerman, 2018
  • Ken Fivizzani, 2019
  • Doug Walters, 2019
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JCHAS Editor’s Spotlight for Nov / Dec 2018

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The Editor’s Spotlight for the November / December 2018 issue of the Journal of Chemical Health and Safety is shining on:

Expedient destruction of organic peroxides including triacetone triperoxide (TATP) in emergency situations by Damien Reid, Bruce Riches, Andrew Rowan, Michael Logan

You can download the paper in PDF format here.

The authoring team are:

  • Damien Reid is affiliated with Research and Scientific Branch, Queensland Fire and Emergency Ser- vices, G.P.O. Box 1425, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
  • Bruce Riches is affiliated with Research and Scientific Branch, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, G.P.O. Box 1425, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
  • Andrew Rowan is affiliated with Forensic Services Group, Queensland Police Service, Australia.
  • Michael Logan is affiliated with Research and Scientific Branch, Queensland Fire and Emergency Ser- vices, G.P.O. Box 1425, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia
Other papers in this issue include:

Boston safety! 
Harry J. Elston 

Comment on Letter from Dr. Edward Behrman – Laboratory Safety – A Contrary View 
Robert H. Hill 

Lessons learned in several laboratory upgrades 
L.C. Cadwallader, R.J. Pawelko 

Safety culture and safety compliance in academic laboratories: A Canadian perspective 
Helene-Rosina Ayi, Chun-Yip Hon 

Incomplete understanding of biogas chemical hazards — Serious gas poisoning accident while unloading food waste at biogas plant 
Frank Huess Hedlund, Michael Madsen 

Expedient destruction of organic peroxides including triacetone triperoxide (TATP) in emergency situations 
Damien Reid, Bruce Riches, Andrew Rowan, Michael Logan 
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Creating a Lab Safety Culture for Industry and Academia

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Thursday, October 11, 2018 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET

How can you develop your safety skills and support a safe lab to work in everyday whether you are in industry or academia? In 2018, the American Chemical Society recognized that chemical safety as an integral part of its strategic mission. During this free interactive webinar, join ACS President Dr. Peter Dorhout as well as three experts in a lively discussion of how this initiative influences their roles as educators, industry and graduate students as well as the valuable new ACS lab safety resources for both the teaching and research chemistry laboratory.

Webinar poster
Click on the image to download a printable poster

YOU WILL LEARN…

  • What safety knowledge, skills, and attitude does industry expect of the chemists it hires
  • How graduate students can impact the safety conditions and programs in their research labs
  • What faculty members can do to model safe practices in the teaching and research labs

Register at  http://bit.ly/ACSlabsafetyculture

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Nanosafety and Awards Presentations at Boston National Meeting

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Nanomaterials: Applications, Safety Considerations, & Implications for Human Health & the Environment

Role of the National Nanotechnology Initiative in the Safe and Responsible Development of Nanotechnology.
M. Meador

Nanotechnology: Where is it Today and is EHS a Part of Successful Commercialization.
C. Geraci

Back from the future: What nanotechnology can teach us about chemical safety today.
K. Kulinowski

CHAS Awards Symposium

Looking forward: Fifty years experience in chemical safety.
N. Langerman

Zooming out: The future of chemical-research health and safety through a wide-angle lens.
K. Brown

Innovation transforming lives through the power of clean water.
D. Schmidt

Yale’s Safety Advisor Model for Supporting and Integrating Safety into Research. P. Reinhardt

Fostering a culture of safety at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. C. Brennan, N. Eskew

Dow Lab Safety Academy: Lessons Learned & Future Opportunities.
L. Seiler

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Presidential Symposium on Moving ACS’s Safety Goals Forward

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Organizer: Dr. Peter Dorhout

Introductory Remarks. Dr. Dorhout
Safety in the Context of the ACS Strategic Plan. R. Stuart
Chemical Safety Information Opportunities. C. Nitsche

Communicating Chemical Safety K. Jeskie
Empowering ACS Members to Be Safety Leaders. K. Serrano
Industrial perspective on chemical safety – The Corporation Associates direction. D. Mason

Partnering to strengthen safety. J. Maclachlan
Developing an Education Path for all Chemists. D. Finster

Building a Chemical Safety Ecosystem. L. McEwen
Strategic connections between Chemical Safety and Green Chemistry. J. Wissinger

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Learning Laboratory Safety through Storytelling

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Enhancing the Culture of Safety through Good Storytelling.
M.B. Koza

How personal stories can support safety training.
D.M. Decker

What’s the point of your story?
K.P. Fivizzani

Playing with Fire.
S.B. Sigmann

An unknowing, unthinking, uncaring graduate student learns a lesson about safety.
R.H. Hill

The Genres of Science
R. Stuart

Turning safety observations into messages.
T.C. Gallagher, R. Brian, R. Stuart

From Storytelling to StoryMAKING.
R.M. Izzo

Preserving Institutional History of Chemical Incidents..
P.A. Reinhardt

Using Risk Management Techniques to Improve Situational Awareness and Accident Reduction.
R. Lippman

Chemical safety information in PubChem.
J. Zhang, P. Thiessen, A. Gindulyte, E. Bolton

Using the chemical inventory system to create research articles that include safety information.
R.N. Vernon, K.N. Lamb

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Playing with Fire: Chemical Safety Expertise Required

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Samuella B. Sigmann*of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina and incoming chair of DCHAS authored a Journal of Chemical Education article on the ongoing history of flammable liquid incidents in educational settings. The article was chosen as an editor’s choice for August and is now available on an open access basis for free download.
Congratulations, Sammye!