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JCHAS Editor’s Spotlight: A methodology on how to create a real-life relevant risk profile for a given nanomaterial

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

A methodology on how to create a real-life relevant risk profile for a given nanomaterial
by Christa Schimpel, Susanne Resch,  Guillaume Flament,  David Carlander, and Izaskun Bustero

The abstract for this Open access article is:

With large amounts of nanotoxicology studies delivering contradicting results and a complex, moving regulatory framework, potential risks surrounding nanotechnology appear complex and confusing. Many researchers and workers in different sectors are dealing with nanomaterials on a day-to-day basis, and have a requirement to define their assessment/management needs.

This paper describes an industry-tailored strategy for risk assessment of nanomaterials and nano-enabled products, which builds on recent research outcomes. The approach focuses on the creation of a risk profile for a given nanomaterial (e.g., determine which materials and/or process operation pose greater risk, where these risks occur in the lifecycle, and the impact of these risks on society), using state-of-the-art safety assessment approaches/tools (ECETOC TRA, Stoffenmanager Nano and ISO/TS 12901-2:2014).

The developed nanosafety strategy takes into account cross-sectoral industrial needs and includes:

  • (i) Information Gathering: Identification of nanomaterials and hazards by a demand-driven questionnaire and on-site company visits in the context of human and ecosystem exposures, considering all companies/parties/downstream users involved along the value chain;
  • (ii) Hazard Assessment: Collection of all relevant and available information on the intrinsic properties of the substance (e.g., peer reviewed (eco)toxicological data, material safety data sheets), as well as identification of actual recommendations and benchmark limits for the different nano-objects in the scope of this projects;
  • (iii) Exposure Assessment: Definition of industry-specific and application-specific exposure scenarios taking into account operational conditions and risk management measures;
  • (iv) Risk Characterisation: Classification of the risk potential by making use of exposure estimation models (i.e., comparing estimated exposure levels with threshold levels);
  • (v) Refined Risk Characterisation and Exposure Monitoring: Selection of individual exposure scenarios for exposure monitoring following the OECD Harmonized Tiered Approach to refine risk assessment;
  • (vi) Risk Mitigation Strategies: Development of risk mitigation actions focusing on risk prevention.

This article and the rest of the issue can be found at ScienceDirect site

Also included in this issue of JCHAS are:

Don’t ever tell me…
Harry J. Elston

Photocatalytic degradation of phenol solution using Zinc Oxide/UV
Original research article
H. Dewidar, S.A. Nosier, A.H. El-Shazly

A methodology on how to create a real-life relevant risk profile for a given nanomaterial
Open access – Original research article
Christa Schimpel, Susanne Resch,  Guillaume Flament,  David Carlander, and Izaskun Bustero

A case history of legacy chemical cleanup in the lab
Original research article
L.C. Cadwallader, R.J. Pawelko

Development of custom calibration factors for respirable silica using standard methods compared to photometric monitoring data
Pages 27-35
Leon F. Pahler, Danielle D. McKenzie-Smith, Rodney G. Handy, Darrah K. Sleeth

Engineering intervention to reduce API dust exposure during milling operation
Original research article
Vivek Kanjiyangat, Manikandan Hareendran

UPCOMING EVENTS

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Safety Presentations from the Atlantic Basin Conference on Chemistry

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ACS Safety Initiatives: Impact On The Global Chemistry Enterprise
Neal Langerman

US safety initiatives as influences on global laboratory safety
Russ Phifer

Approaching research and scale-up safety through process-oriented solutions
Harry J. Elston, Ph.D., CIH

Social and Ethical Implications (SEI) of Nanotechnology
Larry Gibbs, CIH, FAIHA

Analyzing academic laboratory accidents to prevent accidents
Craig Merlic

Risk Perception in Academic Laboratories
Imke Schroeder, Ph.D.

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Volunteer Opportunities in DCHAS

INFORMATION FOR NEW CHAS MEMBERS AND VOLUNTEERS

Safety and the American Chemical Society (ACS)

The ACS is a very large organization managed by a combination of full-time professionals and active volunteers.  Information regarding how the ACS operates can be found on the ACS website (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/about/governance.html) and is not discussed in detail in this document.  With respect to safety, the ACS has two groups dedicated to supporting the safe use of chemistry (particularly, but not exclusively, in the laboratory setting) the Committee on Chemical Safety (the CCS) and the Division of Chemical Health and Safety (DCHAS).

The CCS is part of the ACS governance structure and provides policy recommendations for and peer review of ACS safety outreach materials. Membership is managed by the ACS Committee on Committees.

DCHAS is a technical division which addresses emerging chemical safety issues, broadly construed, and supports research into these issues. Membership in the Division is open to all chemists and chemical safety professionals and DCHAS takes the lead in organizing technical symposia and publishing research on the topics. There is significant overlap between CCS and DCHAS, both in terms of professional interests and people participating in the activities of each. The goal of this document is to help people interested in participating in ACS safety discussions identify the best place to develop these interests.

ACS National Meetings

There are two ACS National Meetings scheduled every year, one in the spring (March or April) and one in the fall (August or September). The official dates for each meeting extend from Sunday through the following Thursday. Note that many meeting attendees arrive during the week before the meeting as there are meetings of many governance committees, the ACS Board of Directors meeting, and workshops conducted prior to the official start of the meeting.

CHAS workshops are normally offered on the Friday and Saturday just prior to each National Meeting. ACS staff usually arrive by the Wednesday before the meeting.  The CCS usually holds a working meeting on Saturday Evening which is limited to members of the committee.

The busiest days of the meeting are Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sunday has many presidential symposia and keynote speakers and the exposition opens on Sunday evening. Monday probably has the most symposia of any day at the meeting and features the exposition during the day, and SciMix in the evening (SciMix is a large poster session for all divisions and social event in the convention center). Tuesday is the last day of the exposition and another full day of symposia. On Tuesday evenings there is the ACS Awards Dinner during the Spring Meeting and the ChemLuminary Awards during the Fall Meeting.  The Spring Awards Dinner recognizes individuals while the Fall ChemLuminary Awards event recognizes technical divisions and local sections.

On Wednesday morning of national meetings, the ACS Council Meeting takes place from 8:00 AM until noon. There are about 532 councilors (2015 count) and perhaps another 100-150 others (ACS staff, certain committee members, and non-councilor ACS members) who attend the meeting. Although this is, at best, 5% of the meeting attendees, the meeting activities decrease dramatically starting Wednesday morning. There is no exposition. The number of receptions and other evening events is very small on Wednesday, as a lot of attendees go home on Wednesday. There are symposia scheduled on Thursday morning and afternoon; attendance is often very low, especially in the afternoon symposia. The shuttle bus schedule is less frequent. There are no social activities or events. The symposia that are scheduled on Thursday are mostly from the large divisions.

Technical Programming at the National Meetings is organized by the technical divisions.   Technical divisions develop symposia ideas and identify symposium organizers about 1 year prior to each national meeting.  A “Call for Papers” goes out in C&E News approximately 9 months before the meeting and the online abstracts submission process opens to submissions approximately 8 months prior to the meeting and is open for about 2 months.  After the abstracts submission window closes, Symposium organizers, Division Programming Chairs and ACS staff complete the scheduling process and develop a preliminary and final schedule.

Divisions must follow what is called “even programming.” Each of the five meeting days has morning and afternoon session scheduling, a total of 10 sessions. A division cannot schedule a second symposium in the same session unless they have scheduled symposia for all 10 sessions. Thus, larger divisions must program on Wednesday and Thursday before they can start scheduling second symposia in the same session. They cannot schedule a third symposium in a session until they have scheduled two symposia in all 10 sessions. Take a look at how many simultaneous symposia there are in ANAL, INOR, ORGN, PHYS, or PMSE.

CHAS Activities at National Meetings

The CHAS technical program is reflected in the ACS technical program (available at www.ACS.org) and a 2-page summary trifold is made available on http://www.dchas.org approximately one week prior to the meeting.   This trifold, titled “CHAS-at-a-glance” provides information regarding the workshops, technical symposia and social events for the meeting.  Paper copies are made available at the CHAS Booth in the Exhibit Hall and CHAS technical session information table.  The following are highlights of typical events at the National Meetings for CHAS and CCS.  These are also summarized in a calendar at the end of this document.

CHAS usually offers between two and six workshops at every national meeting. Those workshops take place on the Friday and Saturday before the meeting. Interested persons can obtain information and sign up through the www.dchas.org website.  Members of CHAS and partner groups (CSHEMA, CHED) can attend these workshops for a discounted rate

On Sunday, the CHAS Executive Committee meeting and breakfast takes place from 8:00 a.m. until noon. All members, especially those interested in becoming more active in the division are welcome to attend the DCHAS EC meeting. The meeting agenda is posted on www.dchas.org approximately one week prior to the meeting.  As there are many other Sunday morning activities, it is not unusual to see people coming and going throughout the meeting.

The CHAS technical program usually begins on Sunday afternoon.  The CHAS Program Committee tries to avoid scheduling any technical symposia on Monday morning to avoid a conflict with the CCS membership meeting, but sometimes the “even programming” rules force CHAS to have a session on Monday morning. At a minimum, there are usually CHAS symposia scheduled for Monday afternoon and all-day Tuesday, although lately we have programmed through Wednesday afternoon.  Almost all CHAS symposia are co-sponsored by CCS.

Keeping in mind that many CHAS volunteers are also active on the Committee for Chemical Safety (CCS), we note that the CCS Full Committee Meeting is on Monday morning at 8:30 AM with breakfast starting at 7:45 AM and runs until noon at the latest. If there are working task forces or other CCS working groups who need to do some specific work, CCS may have a working lunch after the full committee meeting.  In light of this overlap, CHAS avoids programming at the same time as this meeting where possible.

Monday and Tuesday are full days of the Exposition in the convention center. CHAS and CCS co-sponsor a booth in the exposition; volunteers from both groups staff the booth (see “Booth Sign-up POLL” below for how to sign-up).

At most national meetings, Monday evening is the CHAS reception and social, usually from 5:00 or 5:30 until 7:00 or 7:30 PM. CCS members are welcome at the CHAS reception and all other activities. CHAS may partner with another division, most frequently SCHB (Small Chemical Business) or CHAL (Chemistry and the Law), as co-hosts of the social event. A co-hosted social may occur on Tuesday evening if our partner has a specific reason to hold it then, such as honoring a keynote speaker or award recipient from a Tuesday symposium.

On Monday night, SciMix is held from 8-10 pm.  CHAS usually has 8-10 posters in the massive SciMix poster session. All members are invited to submit a poster to this event; to do so, submit an abstract as part of the technical program.  The division always tries to have some presence at the ACS Sci-Mix, but has recently experimented with “daytime” poster sessions that is scheduled and collocated with the technical talks.  When the poster session is scheduled with the technical sessions, poster presenters will be invited to re-post their poster during the SciMix sessions as well.

The schedules for the national meeting and for CHAS/CCS are quite full, especially during the key days of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, when meeting attendance is the greatest.

CHAS activities outside of the National Meetings

The CHAS Executive Committee is active throughout the year, engaged in planning for the next meeting or pursuing projects to improve chemical health and safety throughout the chemical enterprise.   Business is primarily conducted via monthly teleconference meetings that are organized by the chair.  Elected officials, chairs and those working on CHAS projects (‘the executive committee’) are invited to participate in the monthly teleconference. Members interested in becoming more active in the division may also participate (contact someone on the EC to obtain current schedule/details).

In addition to the monthly EC teleconferences, additional teleconferences, and occasionally in-person meetings, are held to coordinate specific activities and projects. These projects are typically coordinated by the committee chair or project leader.  Also- every January, the division sends a few newly elected officers or appointed committee chairs to the ACS Leadership Institute in Dallas.  Attendees are selected by the EC based on their position or involvement with the committee.  Periodically (5-10years), the division will conduct a strategic planning activity to develop long term plans which usually involves the executive committee and active volunteers.

General Information

A variety of resources are available for members and volunteers, each with specific intent

  • DCHAS-L: This is the listserv that is provided to all CHAS members and some ACS and CCS officials. In addition to the latest chemical related incidents captured from Google, It is used as a forum to ask relevant safety based questions to leading subject experts, discuss safety concerns, post lessons-learned, post EHS employment opportunities, and announce CHAS activities to the entire division.  The traffic level of this list is limited to 15 messages/day, but usually is 20 to 30 messages/week.
  • DCHAS-EC: This is a listserv limited to the executive committee for conducting official CHAS business. All officers and chairs are automatically included in this discussion list as well as active volunteers. The traffic level of this list is less than DCHAS-L.
  • dchas.org: This is the official website of the committee and is open to the public.  It contains information for existing and prospective members (including presentations from National Meetings) as well as periodic updates of CHAS business including annual reports and tax filings, EC agendas and CHAS at a Glance
  • CHAS Administrative Manual: This is the operational guide that defines how CHAS business is conducted.  It is available on the CHAS website and is treated as a living document to address the evolving needs of the committee.
  • Basecamp: This is a document sharing program that is utilized as a workspace for specific projects (for example, strategic planning).  Various pages are set up for specific projects with access granted by project.
  • Booth Sign-up and other polls: Individual polls are created usually via online polling apps and sent out to the entire DCHAS-L group prior to national meetings to request volunteers for the booth or other special activity at the National Meeting. Polling apps are also used to schedule special teleconferences.
  • The Journal of Chemical Health and Safety is a benefit to all members as part of their annual dues. Members will receive the paper copy and have access to the electronic copy (current instructions for accessing the electronic copy can be found on dchas.org).  All CHAS members are encouraged to submit articles to the Journal!
  • The Cannabis Chemistry Subdivision (CANN) of CHAS develops programming and other activities focused on the emerging cannabis industry and endeavors to provide to information and other resources to chemists working in this area and ensure their health and safety. CANN business meetings are held Sunday morning after the CHAS-EC meeting, and programming is often scheduled on Monday of the national meeting.

Volunteers

  • The Division of Chemical Health and Safety is reliant on volunteers for its survival – there are no permanent staff that serve the Division, although Divisional activities are often coordinated with ACS staff efforts.  Volunteers can contribute by participating in specific projects or on committees, participation in technical programming as an organizer or presenter, or can assume assigned roles as a chair of one of the various committees or through service in an elected role (usually a 3-year commitment).
  • Getting involved is easy– show up, either in person at a National Meeting or electronically via e-mail!   One of the easiest ways to get involved is to attend the CHAS EC Breakfast on Sunday morning, a technical session or social event at the national meeting-  walk up to a person wearing a “CHAS” shirt and ask how you can get involved (or tell us what you want to do).  The incoming chair of the division is responsible for appointed chairs for the next calendar year, so this is a good person to start with (look this person up on the dchas.org website).
  • Where to start: New volunteers typically start small- show up to a few events and listen in to how the activities work.  You could also present a poster or give a talk, or sign up to volunteer at the booth with an experienced CHAS member.  As you gain experience, you might decide to organize/co-chair a session or participate on a committee (just contact the committee chair and ask where they need help!).  Heck, you might even want to run for an elected position.  In any case- start early and talk to us…we’re not going to let anyone fail at this!

Volunteer Support:

  • How do I get one of those cool shirts? CHAS Shirts are available at Land’s End (https://business.landsend.com/store/chas/) for purchase.
  • Reimbursements for CHAS volunteer activities: Material support and expenses for sanctioned division activities are reimbursed by the division (supplies for workshops, costs for awards, etc.).  Volunteers that serve in elected or appointed roles are provided some financial support (based on role) for their participation in national meetings or other official activities.  The treasurer can provide guidance on how to claim expenses and what roles are supported so just ask!

More Information:

We realize that this guide is not comprehensive, so if there is anything else that you would like to know or see added to this document- please contact us  and a member of the executive committee will help out.  Thanks for taking the time to read this.  We look forward to working with you in the future

  • Original version issued January 2018 by Joe Pickel

Typical National Meeting Events for CHAS & CCS
Friday and Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday
Morning CHAS Workshops

[Registration Required]

 CHAS

Breakfast and EC Meeting [OPEN]

 

 CCS Breakfast and Open Meeting [OPEN]

 

CHAS

Programming

 

Expo Booth manned

 

 

 CHAS

Programming

 

Expo Booth manned

 CHAS

Programming

 

 
Afternoon CHAS Workshops

[Registration Required]

 

 CHAS

Programming

 

Expo Booth Set-up and opening session

 

 CHAS

Programming

 

Expo Booth manned

 

 CHAS

Programming

 

Expo Booth closing session and tear-down

 

 CHAS

Programming

 

 
Evening (Saturday) CCS Dinner & Subcommittee Meeting [CCS Members]

 

 CHAS Reception & Social [OPEN]

 

ACS Sci Mix and CHAS Poster Session

 

 

 

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A Quick Overview of Classroom Flammable Liquid Hazards

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Tragic, preventable incidents continue to occur during K-12 science demonstrations involving flammable materials. 

Despite communication efforts and safety alerts sent out by the American Chemical Society, the US Chemical Safety Board, National Fire Protection Association, and National Science Teachers Association, tragic and preventable incidents are occurring during science demonstrations involving flammable materials.  Most recently, another incident “Four students injured in science experiment gone wrong at Bronx school” occurred on November 22, 2017 at an high school academy in New York City.

A dangerous approach: Uncontained flammable liquids burning in dishes with excess fuel nearby and inadequate ventilation.. Much safer: Soaking wooden splints in salts and viewing the colors produced by burning the splint.

Since 2006, over 90 children have been burned in these incidents, some as young as 3 yrs old. For links to articles and dates of these incidents are available upon request.

Calais Weber was burned on over 40% of her body in 2006 at Western Reserve Academy in Ohio. (Source US Chemial Safety Board) Dane Neuberger, a ninth grader in Minnesota who was one of four students burned in a science demonstration involving methanol. “My face was actually on fire,” he told local media.
(Photograph: Richard Tsong Taatarii/Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Why Does This Keep Happening?

In many of the cases where injuries have occurred, the demonstrator has tried to sustain the flame by adding additional fuel to a hot evaporating dish or a dish where the methanol flame has not gone out, but is not visible. When a 1- or 4- liter container is used by the demonstrator, a phenomenon known as “flame-jetting” can occur.  A NFPA Sep/Oct 2017 article explains flame jetting with images from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) testing at the Fire Research Lab (FRL).

The ATF FRL testing found that flame jetting:

  • Occurred in all 49 tests using ethyl alcohol in various types and sizes of containers, including glass and plastic containers in one-liter and one-gallon sizes, the sizes used in the rainbow demonstration incidents.
  • Flame jets in excess of 15 feet occurred during testing. This is consistent with witness statements and fire damage in the classrooms.
  • The entire jetting event lasted less than one second, with no observable warning signs prior to the phenomenon. When jetting did occur, there was no evidence of thermal or pressure damage to the container.
  • Some flammable liquids such as fresh gasoline are able to release flammable vapors readily enough that the headspace never drops below the upper flammable limit and therefore does not support flame propagation within the container. Weathered gasoline, by comparison, is slower to release vapors and can support flame propagation inside the container, leading to flame jetting.

Similar incidents have occurred with portable plastic gas cans that lack flame arresters, resulting in over 11 deaths and 1200 emergency room visits.

Flame jetting is most likely to happen when:

  • The temperature of the fuel is room temperature or lower, so vapors collect in the container, instead of evaporating out of it and only move when poured out.
  • The pouring angle allows vapors to travel out and flash back inside the container. when the container is upright, the head space above the liquid is too fuel-rich and above the upper flammability limit, meaning that combustion is not supported within the container. As the container is tilted and vapors begin to pour from the open mouth, however, air is entrained into the head space and the fuel-rich mixture eventually falls within the flammable limits; if an ignition source is present and combustion occurs, the flame propagation condition inside the container can lead to flame jetting.
  • There is little fuel left in the can, making it easier for flashback to get through the bottle opening.



Figure from http://www.notyourturntoburn.com/flame-arresters/

What Can Be Done?

Flame arresters have been shown in testing to prevent flame jetting from portable flammable liquid containers that would otherwise produce jets in certain conditions.

The organization Not your turn to burn, which has been organized by mothers of burn victims, has extensive information about the mechanisms behind flame jetting and advocates for flame arresters in The Portable Fuel Container Safety Act of 2017, currently in committee, would require flame arresters on portable flammable liquid containers. Fire prevention advocates say that adding a flame arrester to the opening of a container costs when the container is manufactured will cost less than 50 cents on most portable fuel containers.

This phenomenon is not unknown to the ethanol industry and some manufacturers routinely install flash arresters such the grates on alcoholic beverages such as this Bacardi 151, as manufacturers are aware of flaming drinks.

Flame arresters are required by OSHA for workplace use but not by Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC); many feel that making a packaging option on bottles of common alcohols similar to those on alcoholic beverages could prevent more household tragedies.

Action Items:

  1. Please share the following resources and reminders with your local schools districts and teachers to try to spread the word regarding the dangers of these types of experiments and safer alternatives.
  2. Encourage your congressional representatives to support H.R.919: Portable Fuel Container Safety Act of 2017. It has 31 co-sponsors and is currently in the House Energy and Commerce committee. Letter templates available at http://www.notyourturntoburn.com/letters-articles/
  3. Share with everyone to NEVER add flammable liquids to an open flame. This can lead to FLAME jetting, Use containers with flash arresters.
  4. Petition container manufacturers to sell flame arrester liners compatible with common caps of flammable liquid containers.
  5. Petition chemical manufacturers to add flame arresters to bottles of flammable liquids, similar to the Safety-pour technology provided on bottles available from Lumina Products (https://youtu.be/AS5WDA7mAvw)

Resources

National Science Teachers Association resources

National Fire Protection Association

Template for writing local school officials on this issue

Superintendent
School District
Address

Dear Dr. Superintendent:
As a parent of a current student/ scientist/ concerned community member/ member of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Division of Chemical Health and Safety- I’m writing to you today to ensure that you were aware of recent accidents involving unsafe scientific demonstrations and that your district has policies in place for ensuring the safety of scientific demonstrations in your schools. In addition, I would like to make you aware of information that ACS produced specifically related to the safe handling of chemicals for educational purposes.
The driving force behind my correspondence today was the recent report of several students being injured during a “chemistry experiment gone wrong”. Details on this specific event are still slim, but unfortunately seem to be consistent with several recent events in which students have been injured during demonstrations involving flammable materials. One such experiment, the ‘rainbow demonstration’ has been the cause of numerous accidents resulting in severe student and teacher injuries. In spite of many news reports and multi-million-dollar settlements- these accidents continue to happen.
So we are reaching out directly to our local school districts and teachers to try to spread the word regarding the dangers of these types of experiments and safer alternatives. The ACS, National Fire Protection Agency, and the US Chemical Safety Board have all created documents highlighting these dangers and guidelines for providing safe and educational demonstration. I’ve included several links to these (free) resources below and would be glad to discuss this more with you if desired.
Sincerely,
Your Name,
Address and Phone

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JCHAS Editor’s Spotlight: Comparison between active and passive workplace sampling

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The Editor’s Spotlight for the November / December 2017 issue of the Journal of Chemical Health and Safety is shining on:

A comparison study between passive and active workplace personal air monitoring techniques for airborne isopropyl alcohol concentrations
by
Austin K.Simons, Rodney G.Handy, Darrah K.Sleeth, Leon F.Pahler and Matthew S.Thiese

The abridged abstract is:
This research project involved a comparison between the performance of active and passive sampling methods used to collect isopropyl alcohol vapor in an industrial setting. This field experiment was conducted in a real-world industry setting with workers exposed to isopropyl alcohol. Based on the strong correlation values and the trend of passive samplers reporting higher results than the active samplers, occupational health specialists could reliably use the passive samplers in this study to demonstrate compliance to isopropyl alcohol exposure limits.

This article and the rest of the issue can be found at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-chemical-health-and-safety/vol/24/issue/6

Also included in this issue of JCHAS are:

Editorial: What a year!
Harry J. Elston

Safety and ethics in ACS and major scientific and engineering societies: A gap analysis
Daniel R. Kuespert

Response letter from CEPA to “Safety and Ethics in ACS and Major Scientific and Engineering Societies: A Gap Analysis”
The ACS Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs

Safety and health risk perceptions: A cross-sectional study of New Jersey hair and nail salon clients
Lindsey J. Milich, Derek G. Shendell, Judith M. Graber

UN-GHS — Physical hazard classifications of chemicals: A critical review of combinations of hazard classes
Cordula Wilrich, Elisabeth Brandes, Heike Michael-Schulz, Volkmar Schröder, Klaus-Dieter Wehrstedt

A comparison of occupational exposure limits and their relationship to reactive oxide species
Original research article
Tracy Zontek, Burton R. Ogle, Scott Hollenbeck, John T. Jankovic

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“Improving Chemical Safety in Schools” Workshop at SERMACS

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Sammye Sigmann presented a workshop on laboratory safety resources from the American Chemical Society and other organizations for the teaching environment at the secondary and undergraduate level. Topics addressed include:

  • Conceptual overview  of teacher liability relative to lab safety
  • The ins and outs of the Globally Harmonized System and Safety Data Sheets
  • Risk Assessment models for common teaching demonstrations
  • Evaluation of on line videos demonstrating chemistry

PDF versions of her materials for this workshop are linked to below below.

Improving Chemical Safety in Schools presentation file S.B. Sigmann

Workshop handouts

 

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SERMACS Lab Safety Stories Symposium

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Learning Laboratory Safety Through Storytelling

The story of chemical safety in the 20th (and 21st) century. R. Stuart

Sharing Lab Ventilation Lessons Learned R. Stuart

How does an EHS professional engage their audience?. M.B. Koza

Using learning points to create a sound safety baseline. K.W. Kretchman

A series of unfortunate events: A personal story. S.B. Sigmann

Stories of laboratory incidents teach us lessons about safety. R.H. Hill

 

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Webinar on Strategies for Chemical Threat Reduction

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Avoiding the Next Chemical Catastrophe: Strategies for Chemical Threat Reduction

Co-sponsored by

October 19, 2017 @ 2:00pm ET

Every lab has chemicals that are vital to research and experimentation but these same chemicals whether you are in industry or academia, can be stolen and used by non-state actors for malevolent acts. Join Andrew Nelson of Sandia National Laboratories as he introduces strategies to mitigate the risks that small labs and universities face with theft of chemicals for chemical weapons, explosives, and illicit drug production.

Register at https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/acs-webinars/popular-chemistry/threat.html

What You Will Learn

  • Why chemical security is important to all labs with current examples of incidents
  • What considerations must be made in a security risk management system
  • How chemical security is a teachable skill and what resources are available to you today

Webinar Details

  • Date: Thursday, October 19, 2017 @ 2-3pm ET
  • Fee: Free to Attend
  • Download slides after presentation

 

Reference material

Pistoia Alliance Chemical Safety Library CSL Datathon

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Pistoia Alliance
Chemical Safety Library CSLDatathon

To increase the valuable content in the free Chemical Safety Library (CSL), we are hosting a 2-week datathon in October to promote submissions to the CSL. Participants will be encouraged to submit incidents from the literature, in internal files or from personal experience.

You could win a $100 gift card.

Please help us spread the word:
Download the CSL Datathon Flyer and share it widely!

Thank you for your support and help!

csladmin@pistoiaalliance.org

Watch out for #CSLDatathon and #CSLHackathon on twitter coming soon!

 

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You are receiving this email because you registered for the Pistoia Alliance Chemical Safety Library service.

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Characterising bias in regulatory risk and decision analysis

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There’s an interesting, although dense, article at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412016303877
entitled “Characterising bias in regulatory risk and decision analysis: An analysis of heuristics applied in health technology appraisal, chemicals regulation, and climate change governance”. It describes the root issues that many of us face in using specific tools (GHS, Job Hazard Analysis, Control Banding, etc.) to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. I am particularly interested in the article’s discussion of decision rules in Table 1 and how that compares to the various approaches outlined in Identifying and Evaluating Hazards in Research Laboratories.

In my mind, the goal of the article is to remind us to put some error bars arounds our decision-making criteria as we proceed with any of these approaches.