From: Richard Palluzi <000006c59248530b-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Laboratory accident stats?
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2020 16:25:05 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: 00a601d6b6de$cb09f270$611dd750$**At_Symbol_Here**verizon.net
In-Reply-To


NFPA culled laboratory fire data in the use from their database of fire reports and got the following:

 

177 fires/year from 2003-2006  or 44.3/year[NFPA data]

142 fires/year from 2009-2013 or 28.4/year [NFPA data]

 

 

These are fires large enough to generate a fire department report (which excludes a lot of smaller fires).  It does not tell how many people were injured. Here is the same type info I culled from these and other public reports over the last few years for fires and explosions:

 

Year

Reported Fires and Explosions

Academia

Industry

2016

40

27

13

2017

43

34

9

2018

48

35

13

2019

67

44

23

2020

20

11

9

 

 

The 2020 data is only through July. My assumption is that for every one I hear about there is at least one I never know about (probably more). The rise over the years worries me but it might be that I am getting better at ferreting these out.

 

 

Richard Palluzi

PE, CSP

 

Pilot plant and laboratory consulting, safety, design,reviews, and training

www.linkedin.com/in/richardppalluzillc/

 

Richard P Palluzi LLC

72 Summit Drive

Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

rpalluzi**At_Symbol_Here**verizon.net

908-285-3782

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU> On Behalf Of Jeffrey Lewin
Sent: Monday, November 9, 2020 3:32 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Laboratory accident stats?

 

Someone might have more granular data, but for the big picture I use this in my slides.  It is, certainly, an underestimation.

 

Jeff

 

  • The Chemical Safety Board has collected chemical incidents that "occurred in public and private research laboratories, universities, high schools, middle schools elementary schools, the National Laboratories, state-run laboratories and educational demonstrations."
  • From 1998-2018 (20 years) they recorded:
    • 260 incidents, that caused
    • 10 fatalities and
    • 489 injuries

 

More details are available at:


https://www.csbgov/assets/1/6/csb_laboratory_incident_data.pdf 

 

On Mon, Nov 9, 2020 at 2:22 PM Shannon Nephew <millersc**At_Symbol_Here**plattsburgh.edu> wrote:

Hello,

 

I have a faculty member who is looking for the following:

 

"Do you know if there are statistics available for how many (teaching) lab accidents are caused by instructors with a lack of experience/training? Another good statistic might be how many lab accidents occur in each kind of chem lab in a typical year. "

 

They would like to use this information to make a case for hiring more qualified instructors in general and organic chemistry laboratories. I do realize that near misses and smaller incidents/accidents may not be as readily reported by these less experienced instructors, so this data might be tricky to obtain.

 

I appreciate any help you can provide!

 

Shannon

 

SHANNON C. NEPHEW, 

MS, CSM, NRCC-CHO

Chemical Hygiene Officer, Hudson Hall Science Complex Building Manager

Science Programs and Facilities Support Professional

Hudson Hall 317

101 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901

plattsburgh.edu

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--

Jeff Lewin

Director of Chemical Laboratory Operations

Research Integrity Office

Laboratory Operations

205 Lakeshore Center 

Michigan Technological University

 

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