The extraction story describes an important â??safetyâ?? challenge - transferring techniques between the educational lab and the research setting requires a careful thought and risk assessment, which is likely to be beyond the scope of an undergraduateâ??s skill set. That is one reason that undergraduates can benefit from systematic safety education as part of their science experience, but learning that they will need continuing lab safety education and discussion is an important take away from the undergraduate years.

>At very least, HS science should provide the student with the basic safety ideas to survive in the modern world.

My experience with HS chemistry in the 1970â??s is that â??descriptive chemistryâ?? such as those examples was leaving the high school curriculum in favor of atomic theory and other more general concepts. Hazmat information was not part of the high school curriculum then. According to the data at
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=97
70% of high school students take a chemistry course (up from 50% in 1990), but Iâ??d be surprised if this classwork includes much hazardous materials information.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

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