Author: Dan Kuespert

Laboratory Safety Advocate for the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus. I am a Ph.D. chemical engineer and Certified Safety Professional with experience in industrial research, nonprofit management, and chemical safety consulting. My role is to promote a culture of safety at Homewood by working with faculty, staff, and students to bring safety expertise into the laboratory.

Incident report: Regulator overpressure, Ames Hall, Feb 2014

A researcher was attempting to change the acetylene pressure on an atomic absorption spectrometer by adjusting the pressure regulator. He inadvertently set the pressure well above 15psig, despite the signs (and the red markings on the regulator) warning not to do so. When acetylene pressure exceeds 15psi, the gas can liquefy; in this state, acetylene can suddenly and explosively polymerize. Fortunately, this did not occur, although the regulator was ruined from overpressurization.

Learn more about this incident and its implications in Incident Ames Feb2014.

Using extension cords, power strips, and surge suppressors

Every office and lab uses electrical equipment, but the wall socket is not always in the right place. An extension cord, power strip, or surge suppressor offers a quick way to fix this situation. Sometimes, though, this is not a good thing.

Learn about fire and other hazards from extension cords and their ilk in Extension cords v2.

How to write a Safety Note about an incident or close call

If you have experienced or witnessed an incident or close call, you can help the wider JHU research community to avoid similar future problems if you draft a JHU Safety Note.

Don’t worry if you’re not a good writer: the Laboratory Safety Advocate will edit your Note for style and certain technical guidelines before it is published.

See instructions on how to write a Safety Note in this document..

Incident report: Remsen Hall, June 2013

A researcher was flame-sealing a glass tube using an oxy-gas torch. The tube had been dipped in liquid nitrogen to condense its contents before the sealing operation, so the researcher was using a lab wipe to handle the cold glass. The wipe ignited and fell into the laboratory waste box, which also ignited. The researcher extinguished the resulting fire using a dry-chemical extinguisher mounted in the hallway outside the lab. Neither the fire department nor Security was called, nor was the building fire alarm sounded.

See lessons learned and discussion questions in this Safety Note.

How to dispose of empty chemical containers

If you use chemical products or lab chemicals, you probably empty a bottle occasionally. What do you do with it?

Improperly-disposed containers can expose custodians and the public to hazardous chemicals, can create legal liability for you and the university, and can even explode at the disposal facility.

Find out what to do (and what not to do) in What do I do with my empties?

When do you need safety eyewear? Always!

Even if you are not doing anything that “needs” safety eyewear, you still need safety eyewear in the lab!

You do not have control over all hazards in the lab—one of your fellows may walk in with a chemical bottle and suddenly drop it on the bench in front of you, or a pressurized system (like a gas cylinder regulator) may throw off a part. You are exposed to more hazards than you personally are handling—choose eyewear according to your exposure, not your specific work. There have been incidents at Homewood where uninvolved labmates were suddenly involved in someone else’s accident.

Wearing appropriate eyewear in lab or shop is also a mark of a professional scientist or engineer. If you have to be told to put on your safety glasses or goggles when visiting an industrial or governmental facility, you will be considered unprofessional, and you may not get the job for which you are interviewing. Acquire the habit of wearing safety eyewear.

Algorithm for deciding whether you need safety eyewear:

  1. Is the work you’re about to do hazardous?
    If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. Obviously, you personally need it.
  2. Is anyone else in the lab doing hazardous work?
    If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. You are exposed to their hazards.
  3. Are chemicals or compressed gases stored or used in the lab at any time?
    If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. You do not have control over falling chemical bottles, poorly secured pressurized parts, etc.
  4. Is it possible anyone else will bring hazardous work into the lab while you are there?
    If YES, wear appropriate eyewear. Somebody can walk in and drop a chemical bottle at any time, so you need to be ready.
  5. Is it possible that you will “forget” to put on your eyewear if you decide to do hazardous work—or simply not do it because “you’re just doing one little thing?”
    If YES, wear appropriate eyewear.
  6. Are you sure you won’t do anything hazardous in lab today, no one will walk in with hazardous materials or equipment, nothing hazardous is stored in the lab, and you want to exhibit bad professional habits?
    If YES, you DON’T need to wear safety eyewear.

Lab air can kill you

Equipment, experiments, and people often get dirty—a lab bench covered with cement dust, a drill press clogged with metal shavings, wet glassware that needs drying, or even a researcher covered with sawdust after cutting a wooden part. Some people look to the compressed air tap or cylinder in the lab as a quick way to clean off.

Did you know this can kill?

Even a relatively low-pressure stream of air can propel chips, dust, and parts through the air at high velocity; the flow from a 20psi air line can be supersonic. If this material strikes someone, it can cause serious injury. If the injury is to the eye, the victim may be permanently blinded.

Even worse, a few tens of psi pressure can easily inject air beneath the skin, inflating body parts like balloons—and causing excruciating pain. If air reaches the bloodstream, it can cause air embolisms—blockages in narrow blood vessels—as well as clots & ruptures in vital areas such as the brain. Uncontrolled air injection can be deadly.

Read tips for safely handling compressed air at Compressed air misuse.

JHU chemical waste disposal

Anyone generating chemical waste must take the on-line Chemical Waste Management class on myLearning. Chemical waste may be taken to the Macaulay Hall waste collection room (basement of Macaulay–use the ramp opposite New Chemistry Building) on Thursdays, from 9-12. Use the Chemical Waste Disposal Form to register your waste first.

If your building is not connected by tunnel to Macaulay, use the online form to arrange an in-lab pickup during the Thursday hours that the room in Macaulay is not manned.

All labs that generate chemical waste are required to have trained individuals to maintain the Satellite Accumulation Area. That training is provided by the Chemical Waste Management class.

Chemical waste disposal is free to labs at Homewood unless your chemical is “unknown.” There is a $450 charge for disposal of unknown chemicals–in that instance, technicians must use an expensive test kit to characterize your waste. Yet another reason to always label your chemicals!

Contact HSE at 6-8798 if you have any questions.