These two articles may be of interest to CHAS members:

This article discusses the cultural challenges facing emerging chemists and includes a couple of interesting comments about lab safety

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.oprd.3c00017
In Support of Early-Career Researchers

Scientific research is constantly changing, reflecting the nonstop evolution of society. Each new generation of scientists and engineers experiences a world that is different from that of their predecessors─through the advances in scientific knowledge, trends in research, or the cultural environment. While this has been true since humans first started to study their world, in the past 20 years the pace of change appears to have accelerated at an unprecedented rate. Today’s early career researchers are facing a “VUCA world”, one that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, characterized by a new normal of constant, accelerating, and often unpredictable change.

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There have been several articles in the general press about mechanochemistry as an alternative to solvent-based chemistry and this article discusses some of the safety aspects of this technique.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.oprd.2c00226

Safety Considerations and Proposed Workflow for Laboratory-Scale Chemical Synthesis by Ball Milling

Chemical reactions that take place in a ball mill and in the absence of a bulk reaction solvent present different safety profiles to stirred solution reactions. Herein, we present and describe steps that a researcher may take to better ensure that they have considered some of the hazards and measures that emerge and minimize the risk to themselves and their colleagues.

- Ralph

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

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