Commentary Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Revising the Division of Chemical Education Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations Irene G. Cesa,† David C. Finster,*,‡ Samuella B. Sigmann,§ and Monique R. Wilhelm∥ ‡
Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio 45504, United States Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina 28608, United States ∥ University of Michigan−Flint, Flint, Michigan 48502, United States §
S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: The need for a revision of the Division of Chemical Education’s “Minimum Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations” is described, along with guiding principles for the revision. The revised guidelines are included as Supporting Information.
KEYWORDS: General Public, Elementary/Middle School Science, High School/Introductory Chemistry, First-Year Undergraduate/General, Demonstrations, Safety/Hazards, Ethics, Enrichment/Review Materials, Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives
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understanding of hazard. Additionally, there have been changes in federal regulations (e.g., the 2012 update of the Hazard Communication Standard)5 and updates of nonregulatory standards (e.g., the National Fire Protection Association’s standard 45 in 2015).6 These developments have dated the 1988 guidelines and created a general need for revised guidance based on current best safety practice for conducting chemical demonstrations. Recently, an apparent increase in incidents and injuries arising from chemical demonstrations, primarily in academic settings, has also raised awareness of the issue of chemical safety and indicated a need for better guidance.7 The apparent increase in incidents may be an artifact of better reporting by newspaper, radio, or television and also via social media. We lack a reliable and well-documented database of accident or incident occurrences in chemical demonstrations and other lab activities, although publications by the Laboratory Safety Institute8 listing hundreds of incidents over the past few decades provide at least anecdotal evidence for a continued need for up-to-date safety information. While every chemical operation involves some level of hazard and risk, no one should ever get injured as a result of a chemical lab activity. With best practices, events with injury or property damage are virtually 100% preventable, regardless of incidence
he Safety Committee of the Division of Chemical Education (CHED)1 was formed in 2015 to provide resources and strategies to help educators function safely when using chemicals. One of the first tasks of the Safety Committee was to review and revise the Division’s “Minimum Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations”, which were originally published in 1988.2 The updated Safety Committee publication, entitled Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations, is attached as Supporting Information to this Commentary and may also be found on the Division of Chemical Education Web site.3 Another much more extensive guidance document for chemical demonstrations associated with National Chemistry Week (NCW) activities has appeared in recent years, although the provenance of that 11-page document is unclear.4 A 1995 “revision” of the 1988 Guidelines is included in the NCW document on page 8; however, no original publication of the 1995 “revision” can be located, and this “revision” was apparently no more than an affirmation of the 1988 Guidelines, as the text is identical.
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RATIONALE FOR THE UPDATE
Several of the statements in the original “Minimum Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations” have stood the test of time well and have been modified only slightly in the current revision. However, in the nearly 30 years since the publication of these guidelines, the field of chemical health and safety has matured significantly and now advocates for risk-based © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Received: October 18, 2017
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00802 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Chemical Education
Commentary
rates. Because the purpose of chemical demonstrations in various settings is to educate and/or entertain, it is counterproductive to the goals of chemistry education to have mishaps occur.
Notes
GOALS IN REVISING THE SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATIONS The goal of the current revision project was to produce a relatively succinct but adequately useful set of guidelines that could be printed on two sides of a page and distributed widely to educators across the country. As the new guidelines were constructed, we also wrestled with the challenge of writing statements to a diverse audience. Finally, we knew that we had to view the guidelines as a statement of “what to do” rather than “how to do it” because the latter strategy would inevitably grow or metastasize into a much larger document. This new version of the guidelines places a strong focus on risk and hazard assessment prior to implementation, a principle that was lacking in the original document. In writing these guidelines, we used the safety expertise of the members of the CHED Safety Committee and also consulted with representatives of the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety. Chemical demonstrations are conducted by educators in a wide variety of settings ranging from science museums and K− 12 classrooms or laboratories to university settings. Training and education of these different cohorts of educators with regard to chemistry and chemical health and safety span a wide range of knowledge and skills. To write succinct chemical safety guidelines, it was necessary to assume some level of chemical and safety knowledge; thus, the prelude to the 2017 guidelines states the following: Because no such set of guidelines can address all possible issues, only persons who have appropriate education and experience in chemistry and chemical safety should perform chemical demonstrations. Accordingly, these guidelines are intended for use only by experienced chemical practitioners. We urge everyone who conducts chemical demonstrations to review these new guidelines and carry out the appropriate formal hazard and risk assessment prior to practicing the demonstration and performing it before an audience. Guidance for performing a basic hazard assessment by asking five critical questions was recently published in the September/October 2016 issue of inChemistry.9 More in-depth hazard and risk assessment can be found at the newly launched ACS Web site Hazard Assessment in Research Laboratories.10
(1) ACS Division of Chemical Education Safety Committee Homepage. http://www.divched.org/committee/safety (accessed January 2018). (2) Division of Chemical Education, American Chemical Society. Minimum Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations. J. Chem. Educ. 1988, 65 (8), 721. (3) ACS Division of Chemical Education. Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations. http://www.divched.org/content/safetyguidelines-chemical-demonstrations (accessed January 2018). (4) NCW and Community Activity Safety Guidelines. https://www. acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/policies/safety/safetyguidelines-for-ncw-and-community-activities.pdf (accessed January 2018). (5) Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. HCS/HazCom 2012 Final Rule & Appendices. https:// www.osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/ghs-final-rule.html (accessed January 2018). (6) National Fire Protection Association. NFPA 45: Standard on Fire Protection for Laboratories Using Chemicals, 2015. https://www.nfpa. org/codes-and-standards/all-codes-and-standards/list-of-codes-andstandards/detail?code=45 (accessed January 2018). (7) Kemsley, J. How To Make Chemistry Classroom Demonstrations and Experiments Safer. Chem. Eng. News 2015, 93 (46), 37−39. https://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i46/Make-Chemistry-ClassroomDemonstrations-Experiments.html (accessed January 2018). (8) Kaufman, J. One-Hundred Years of Progress; The Laboratory Safety Institute: Natick, MA, 2013; http://labsafetystore.org/one-hundredyears-of-progress (accessed January 2018). (9) Sigmann, S.; Stuart, R. Assessing Risk: Five Key Questions for Research and Demos. inChemistry 2016, No. September/October, 6− 8. http://www.inchemistrydigital.org/inchemistry/september_ october_2016?pg=8#pg8 (accessed January 2018). (10) American Chemical Society. Hazard Assessment in Research Laboratories. https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/about/ governance/committees/chemicalsafety/hazard-assessment.html (accessed January 2018).
The authors declare no competing financial interest. † I.G.C. is retired from Flinn Scientific.
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REFERENCES
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information *
The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00802.
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Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations (PDF, DOCX)
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail: dfi
[email protected]. ORCID
Irene G. Cesa: 0000-0001-5757-6017 David C. Finster: 0000-0002-2884-450X B
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00802 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
