As a member of CCS I also serve as a lab safety outreach advisor for my local (Chicago) section of the ACS by chairing its Environmental Lab Safety Committee. One of the outreach efforts that I engage in regularly is to lead monthly "Safety First" presentations and discussions at our board and dinner meetings and also through our Chemical Bulletin online publication. At the beginning of August I shared the following "Safety First" Minute concerning the danger and tragic consequences of combustion demonstrations involving methyl alcohol and other flammable liquids. I urge my fellow CHAS and CCS members to serve as liaisons to their local sections and lead regular "Safety First" discussions of this type. I am enormously grateful to the chair of the Chicago Section and its Board of Directors, including the editor of the Chemical Bulletin, for enthusiastically adopting this "best practice" throughout the year. Note: In lieu of an attachment, I have pasted the (slightly edited) committee report below my signature.

Irene Cesa

"Safety First" Minute

Environmental Lab Safety Committee

ACS Chicago Section

On Monday, July 1, 2019, a jury in New York City awarded $59 million in damages to a former Beacon High School student who was severely burned during a classroom demonstration involving methyl alcohol. Both the teacher and the school were found liable for this tragic accident that occurred in January 2014. News reports stated that the accident occurred when the demonstration "went awry." However, the accident was in fact entirely predictable. In an apparent attempt to "restart" the flame test demonstration, the teacher poured additional alcohol into a glass vessel that was still hot (and possibly even still alight) from a previous run. Alcohol vapor ignited upon reaching the heat or flame source, and the resulting flame "flashed back" following the stream of vapor and liquid into the large bottle of methyl alcohol. This phenomenon, known as "flame jetting," has been documented for gasoline and other flammable liquids in a special video warning produced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The methyl alcohol classroom demonstration and similar ones involving combustion of flammable liquids have been the subject of numerous warnings from the American Chemical Society, the National Science Teachers Association, the US Chemical Safety Board, and the ATF over the past five years. Despite continued and repeated warnings from all of these agencies, accidents of this type continue to occur with tragic regularity. Indeed, in the 12-month period immediately following the Beacon High School accident, when the safety alert warnings should still have been very "fresh" in people's minds, six more combustion-related accidents took place across the country.

With this month's "Safety First" Minute, I want to remind all of us of the necessity of carrying out a comprehensive hazard and risk assessment for every lab activity and demonstration in any venue, whether classroom or research lab. The most dangerous thing we can do is to rely on past experience to protect ourselves from harm. After all, one of the things both the school and the teacher said in their defense in the courtroom in the Beacon HS case was that she had done this experiment multiple times in the past without incident!

The ACS offers numerous resources to increase the safety awareness of chemists and chemistry educators. If you interact with any teachers, please share with them the one-page document, "Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations," which was prepared by the Safety Committee for the Division of Chemical Education. Please help ensure that students will always be safe in chemistry labs by encouraging teachers you know to follow these guidelines AT ALL TIMES.

Thank you!

Submitted by Irene Cesa

August 2019