[nj_bartel]

Before going to bed, I decided to quickly set up a reaction vessel of 200 mL ~60% sulfuric acid to characterize a metal by formation of the sulfate salt. Anyway, prepare the solution then carefully drop the sample in only to have it shatter the flask with the lightest contact. In my lazy brilliance (shirtless and in athletic shorts), I managed to get my lower extremities, including something rather important, doused. Sprinting to then stripping in shower took all of 15 seconds, but the burning sensation was already pretty present. Doesn't look to have done anything permanent however.

An hour of spritzing and wiping with bicarbonate soln later, everything looks to be fine (other friendly fire targets included a wooden door, dresser, wall, and some carpetting. So no more unsafe procedures happening at this residence anymore.

Any of you care to share stories of incidents?

[hobobot]

What? How? (glad you're ok)

My story starts with a class mate.  She was one of "those" students in the most stereotypical fashion imaginable. Let's just say she wished her boobs were brains.
Anyway, we were making sodium methoxide by dropping solid sodium into methanol. For some reason, she decided to do lab next to me. At this point I realized it was going to be a bad day.

When it came to the reflux part, she put a stopper in her reflux tube...really tightly...without grease...

It did not take very long for the whole bloody 250 mL of sodium methoxide to explode, sending deadly shrapnel across the table. And that wasn't the worst part! The worst part was that I had just set down 20 grams of solid sodium. Which immediately mixed with her water and methanol to explode violently and send more base flying into the air. And it gets better! The methanol was concentrated enough to catch fire! So now my clothes are melting, there's glass everywhere, and the table is on fire.

And that was the only time I've ever had to use the emergency shower. Thank goodness the glass didn't actually break the skin, or that could have stung a whole lot worse.

[Biopolmonkey]

Eek, some scary stories. Fortunately, all my lab accidents have been reasonably minor.

There was the time when I was disposing of some calcium hydride - just dumped it into the solid waste container and carried on about my business, when I saw smoke out of the corner of my eye. Turns out there was something wet in the waste that I hadn't noticed. Anyway, in my intelligence, I took the lid off and the whole thing went up in flames. Me and my friend just stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds before I finally went and got the fire blanket and together we saved the fume cupboard 

The very next day (yeah, safety officer wasn't happy) I was putting a suba seal in the top of a dropping funnel when the glass broke and cut my index finger down to the bone. Again, a few seconds of standing there like before I had to tell someone and sit down pronto.

I have a friend that as an undergraduate had a Winchester of toluene accidentally emptied onto his lap ... The university had to pay for a lot of fertility testing (he was fine thankfully).

[408]

*looks at scar*

Uh, what accident 

[skyjumper]

Mine are much less dangerous. The worst would be the time I did the AgNO3+Mg "flash powder" demo, with 3 grams of silver nitrate and an equal amount of Mg. After adding water to dilute the reactants, I simply picked up the foil I did it on, I didn't remember that silver nitrate stains until well after my fingers and hands turned a nice deep black. I still have a 1 inch square spot on a finger.

[Borek]

Lets see... explosion that numbed my right hand and made some nice holes in the golf (turtle-neck) I was wearing (not to mention temporary blinding and deafening, especially blinding was dangerous as I had to run away down the stairs, people don't like loud bangs behind their exit doors). Sixth finger made of glass tube that I put between my index and middle fingers. Organic reaction that ended on my face. Some interesting holes made in my jeans by solution of chromic acid. Can't remember anything else atm.

[vmelkon]

Heating a liquid in a sealed glass tube. The tube was long and the pressure was slightly lower than atmosphere in the tube. I heated too much and the liquid boiled and popped the glass.
I had glasses on. No damage done.

[Catsceo]

This is minor, but I had a droplet of 95% formic acid land on my arm.  Didn't notice until it had already burned thru my skin (felt like a bee sting).  Got a nice little scar on my arm now.

Something a little more serious, I ended up spilling a solution of uranyl acetate all over the floor when I added too much sodium bicarbonate to neutralized the remaining acetic acid.  Now the room has background radiation slightly higher than the rest of the house 

[vmelkon]

"uranyl acetate" + "Now the room has background radiation slightly higher than the rest of the house"

The house?

[408]

The house?

Citizen chemist section.

[Catsceo]

"uranyl acetate" + "Now the room has background radiation slightly higher than the rest of the house"

The house?

My place of residence.

[Rogeryermaw]

I got a phosphorus burn 2 weeks ago that is still healing. after performing a synthesis of white phosphorus the water in the receiver was hot and when you have liquid P4 in hot water if it sloshes some P4 can surface and burn on the surface of the water. burning P4 has a way of splattering and a couple of droplets landed on my F-U finger on the right hand. it is no joke that phosphorus will turn the area necrotic when it burns you...

[Rogeryermaw]

Sorry don't mean to post twice but i can't edit my last...Anyway a couple of other things that happened, while not in the lab, are sort of chemical related. Once I was handling a car battery and didn't realize until much later that it had leaked H2SO4 all over me. somewhere around an hour or so later i became seriously itchy and when i went in the bathroom to take a shower, my jeans had holes all over them and my shirt came off in pieces. i had some red irritated spots but no major damage.

Also there was a time in high school(when I was in school they still had real science classes with experimentation and metal shop classes that let you weld, forge and work foundry) when my idiotic teacher (shop class) wanted me to melt down some scrap aluminum from the auto class across the vocational wing. we smashed up the metal and put it in the crucible and i periodically checked the temp of the melt with a pyrometer. i knew what was in the crucible and expected the teacher to as well. i told him we needed to pour now (temp at about 1150 but usually pour aluminum at 1300-1350) and he said wait till 1300. i sort of knew what was going to happen but i was just a student so i gave him the benefit of the doubt. remember that the metal came from the auto shop. part of the scrap in there was a piston from a jaguar. if you don't know it, many auto manufacturers alloy their aluminum pistons with magnesium the rest is easy to figure out. that's a fire you can't put out! it sure did look cool though. 4 foot tall pillar of green/white fire and the densest smoke i have ever seen. evacuations were necessary. the crucible did not survive.

[nj_bartel]

I got a phosphorus burn 2 weeks ago that is still healing. after performing a synthesis of white phosphorus the water in the receiver was hot and when you have liquid P4 in hot water if it sloshes some P4 can surface and burn on the surface of the water. burning P4 has a way of splattering and a couple of droplets landed on my F-U finger on the right hand. it is no joke that phosphorus will turn the area necrotic when it burns you...

That's nasty - no P for me (don't mind the fact that I only wish I had the equipment to make it in a reasonable way ).

The holes from sulfuric acid are really ridiculous.  The spill I had was on my dresser, and tiny amounts of it apparently had splashed through my clothes.  However many months later, half my wardrobe has random tiny holes and my boxers (which were hit hardest) look appropriate for Tarzan.

[horsebox]

A while ago I was demonstrating the H2SO4 dehydration of sucrose to some friends but I had never done this before so didn't know what to expect. When I added the acid to a jar of sugar, I expected the reaction to begin immediately so I concluded that I did something wrong so I decided to clean up. I added some NaOH to neutralize the H2SO4 and instantly a violent reaction start and gas + vapour began spraying out of the jar and hissing loudly. It was mainly water vapour coming outta the jar but I didn't know that at the time so I got the hell outta there and told everyone to get indoors thinking it was a potentially life threatening situation. I have repeated this reaction without the NaOH plenty of times now and its always a very slow reaction so I'm not sure what exactly happened first time I tried it. Maybe the heat from the NaOH sped up the reaction but it was fairly concentrated H2SO4 so there wasn't much water for the NaOH to dissolve in so I suspect it catalyzed the reaction somehow.