[rctrackstar2007]

1M would be strong enough to truely hurt her unless she really let it sit there tho

[tennis freak]

wait do you mean that it wouldn't really hurt her

[rctrackstar2007]

wait do you mean that it wouldn't really hurt her

we've used 1M NaOH, did that ever hurt you? the answer would be no, unless you let it sit for days

[tennis freak]

i was just confused with what you meant

[pantone159]

I remember reading about the HF-in-the-trash fatality when it happened.

Somebody just tossed some unwanted HF into the trash, and the garbageman unlucky to toss that in the compactor died from the fumes.

[jdurg]

I remember reading about the HF-in-the-trash fatality when it happened.

Somebody just tossed some unwanted HF into the trash, and the garbageman unlucky to toss that in the compactor died from the fumes.

A friend of mine is a PhD chemist at a battery company and he said that during his graduate work there was an accident at the lab and a chemist had a beaker of anhydrous HF splashed onto her face.  He said it was the scariest thing he had ever seen and that the poor girl was in an INTENSE amount of pain.  Thankfully she survived the incident thanks to the "insta-wash" stations they had in the lab, but he said he'll never forget that day.

[Dude]

The best advice is to not have them. 

There is a zero-tolerance for accidents or even "near-misses" in industrial settings.  Universities are quite relaxed compared to industry when it comes to safety.

If someone has an accident that causes lost time at an industrial site, the worker will basically go through an intense inquisition covering pretty much everything about the situation.  In the vast majority of cases, the companies ultimate objective will be to get rid of the accident-prone liability called the worker, regardless of the fault level of the worker.  It is better to be inefficient and take three times as long to do something than have an accident and be a stellar performer.     

[Contusion]

Accidents in the lab seem to be a common occurance in my school...

The most notable accident that I can recall is that when we were doing volumeteric analysis and preparing solutions with some quite nasty chemicals. I was using Potassium Dichromate and other people were using other various chemicals. So, about three-quarters into the lesson an arrogant and stupid guy approached my female friend, let's call her Sarah and said something along the lines of:
"Oh, mine's better than yours!"
He then proceded to swing his volumetric flask full of solution into her 1 liter flask. Of course hers shattered covering her in a green liquid. Everyone was shocked as we heard the smash and turned toward the back of the class to see green solution dripping out of her mouth and off her goggles. She quickly rushed into the prep room to clean up.
Luckily the solution she was preparing was copper carbonate and it's not that bad if I recall. 

Another slightly humorous accident involved me and sodium metal. It went a little something like this; teacher showing us the classic sodium in water experiment, the teacher asked me to carefully move the sodium from the side of the container because it had stuck there. So, I grabbed a metal stirring rod, I think, and went to nudge the metal but just before I did I announced to the class in a mock tone
"I can sooo see this exploding just as I touch it"
...And it did.
My burns weren't that severe but they stung for a day or two. 

[limpet chicken]

Yeah, I had a rather painful accident with Na metal, during electrolysis of NaOH to prepare it, a piece went off, and flew RIGHT up my nose.

That one, really kinda hurt, left a hole in my septum for a while, until it healed up, a couple of weeks or so.


I recently gassed out my room with chromyl chloride, and with H2S, both those times I grabbed my mask, and ran out of the room, although I had to return, mask on, during the H2S incident.

Burnt my hand once boiling conc. H2SO4.

Did the above with molten NaOH.

Once corroded my leather gloves completely with liquified SO2, the spikes on them rusted in minutes.

Burnt myself nicely as a kid, setting off improvised flashpowder in a pair of old pants, it went up rather quicker than I expected at the time (moral of the story? don't pack underpants full of flashpowder and light it close up )

I have had a close, but not really dangerous (in the end) encounter with H2Se, the fact I could smell it, was enough to alarm me quite a bit.

[constant thinker]

One of the chemistry teacher at my school told my class about an accident that happened a long time ago. They use to have a 1 gallon container of acetone in the store room that they kept under a granite sink. Well one day there was a spark by the sink when a teacher was leaving the store room and all of the acetone exploded. The thing was, they had a whole collection of other chemicals. A bunch of other things exploded too. The granite sink also was destroyed.

There had only been 2 people that knew exactly what was in the store room. One had been injured in the explosion. The other teacher had to direct the hazmat team. He wasn't given a respirator or any protective clothing either.

Also speaking about burning ourselves....
Early in the year (around March) my cousin, some of his friends, and I were all lighting tennis balls on fire and playing flaming tennis. Then we found a nerf football and proceded to saturate it with lighter fluid. I picked it up out of the bucket we used to saturate it, and my stupid cousins friend lit the football on fire while I was holding it!

The thing was dripping lighter fluid, and my hand up to my wrist were covered with lighter fluid. I had told him to wait, but he didn't. It was only minor burns though, but all the hair on my lower arm was gone, and my lower arm was itchy and dry for awhile.

[Jd1828]

I was doing a hydrogenation with Pd catalyst and H2.  The reaction was not going so I decided to add more Pd.  I forgot to flush out the hydrogen from the flask before adding more catalyst.  It made a pretty big bang and a fire ball shot out of the flask. 

[Dan]

I had a little accident in my first year at uni.

I was trying to dissolve something in methanol in a 50ml volumetric flask. So I would put the stopper on and shake it about - but it wouldn't dissolve. So I took off the lid and put it over a steam bath, then take it off, stopper on and shake. I repeated this several times, but once forgot to remove the stopper... and forgot about it for 5 minutes.
So I return to the fume hood and see it there, and realised that it was probably going to blow it's top very soon. But for some reason, I did the stupidest thing possible, I removed it from the fume hood  and took out the stopper. Unfortunately, this coincided perfectly with my lab partner turning round to say something to me, and she ended up with hot methanol all over her face and in her mouth. She was fine though - it wasn't hot enough to burn, and she never suffered any ill effects - and she still did labs with me for another 2 years.

[Albert]

Unfortunately, this coincided perfectly with my lab partner turning round to say something to me, and she ended up with hot methanol all over her face and in her mouth. She was fine though - it wasn't hot enough to burn, and she never suffered any ill effects - and she still did labs with me for another 2 years.

Sounds like the beginning of a romantic love story...

[Dan]

Haha, there was certainly some chemistry

[Donaldson Tan]

Dan:

awww.. so sweet..

the spirits of the lab has spoken. They pick you a mating candidate through their divine wisdom.

perhaps the next time you give her something alcoholic, try red wine. Boiling methanol isn't the best choice. LOL.

I wish my lab partner is female. Too bad Imperial is a monastery!