Good question and good commentary, both.

I pondered Ralph's question and focused on the "...for an educated segment of the public..." component. There appear to me to be several definitions of the segment and several corresponding answers to the question. For example:

If the audience is degree-d chemists then I opine the safety information to be superfluous.

If the audience is non-chemist yet technical practitioners then I see it as relevant.

If the audience is non-technical types then the work ought to be performed ONLY under the supervision of a degree-d chemist.

I also noticed Yaritza's final thought about tidbits including particular substitutions and thought specific prohibitions are problematic (and were probably mentioned as examples). Perhaps the more robust guidance would be "no substitutions of any kind without the agreement of a degree-d chemist." Not perfect yet better and nothing is perfect.

jadv

On Wed, 07 Oct 2020 10:25 AM, Yaritza Brinker wrote:
> Ralph,
>
> You asked:
> Is it reasonable to expect articles about chemicals written for an educated segment of the public to include information related to the risks of the chemicals being discussed in the context that they are being used?
>
> I think that audience should control the depth of the article and vocabulary choices. The objective of the article should dictate what pieces of other information are included, regardless of the audience.
>
> If the article discusses only the science behind the mechanism of disinfection, then it wouldn't be expected to include safety information. One could probably write a whole separate article on the toxicity of hand sanitizers, but, even then, I would not expect additional safety information to be included.
>
> An article describing how to make an ethanol based hand sanitizer, on the other hand, should include basic safety information because it's teaching the art (to use a patent term). I would expect such article to include other tidbits of important safety information... like... don't substitute methanol for ethanol, nor 1-propanol for 2-propanol...
>
> https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fda.gov%2Fconsumers%2Fconsumer-updates%2Fyour-hand-sanitizer-fdas-list-products-you-should-not-use&data=02%7C01%7Cjoseph.diverdi%40COLOSTATE.EDU%7Cbe25a54de1de4445d57808d86ade72b2%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C1%7C637376850924895273&sdata=ag3KMHx8%2Bm8C9p0lpklcOspQWuw8jiiD%2BXNEvdBl8yo%3D&reserved=0
>
> https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fda.gov%2Fdrugs%2Fdrug-safety-and-availability%2Ffda-updates-hand-sanitizers-consumers-should-not-use%23products&data=02%7C01%7Cjoseph.diverdi%40COLOSTATE.EDU%7Cbe25a54de1de4445d57808d86ade72b2%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C1%7C637376850924905267&sdata=vDyfOzxBPMQcS5p%2BJ7pEZka%2B0YLyXgXGhsM3smEV6Kk%3D&reserved=0
>
> Yaritza
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety On Behalf Of Stuart, Ralph
> Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2020 7:39 PM
> To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
> Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] C&EN: Thoughts on Kate the Chemist's "The Big Book of Experiments"?
>
> ** External Email **
>
>>> The Unicorn Glue experiment recommends insulated gloves, but the photos show the experimenter working without any gloves.
>>
> This is a red flag for me - a picture is worth a thousand words when it come to delivering a message about expectations
>
> On a related science communication topic, I was reading a chemistry article written for high school teachers today. It explains why ethanol is used in hand sanitizers. It went into pretty significant detail with regard to biochemistry, viral structure and the history of disinfectants as a medical technique. The article does mention that hand washing is more effective than using hand sanitizers as one down side of their use.
> doesn‰??t mention either that 1) 60% ethanol hand sanitizers are flammable or that 2) ethanol can have toxic effects through dermal adsorption.
>
> While these risks aren‰??t generated at the molecular level that the article describes, they are important considerations for the way these disinfectants are used. Is it reasonable to expect articles about chemicals written for an educated segment of the public to include information related to the risks of the chemicals being discussed in the context that they are being used? Personally, I think that a habit of an explicitly associating flammable and toxic mixtures (perhaps described in GHS terms) would be a public service that the technical press could provide.
>
> Thanks for any thoughts on this.
>
> - Ralph
>
> Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
> Environmental Safety Manager
> Keene State College
> 603 358-2859
>
> ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu
>
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--
Joseph A. DiVerdi, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
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