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Safety Moment
(provided by S. Nephew)
Synthetic fingernails have become a fashion trend in recent years, often extending an inch or more beyond the tip of the finger. Artificial nails are combustible and present a risk to the person wearing them when working with flames. Synthetic acrylic nails burn readily and to completion, upon exposure to a flame, even once the flame has been removed or extinguished. Additionally the nail polish is also flammable and adds another hazard, increasing risk. A study published in 2016 in the Annals of Burns and Fire Disasters provided the first reported case in medical literature of a person whose fingernail caught fire while smoking a cigarette. This victim sustained a full thickness burn to her dominant left thumb, resulting in amputation of the finger. Banning synthetic fingernails in the laboratory may not be feasible, but all scientists should be aware of the hazard and remain vigilant.
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Chair’s Welcome
Greetings! I’m Dan Kuespert, 2023 Chair of CHAS. I’m a Certified Safety Professional with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, and I’m a longtime member of CHAS.
This year is a year of opportunities for CHAS—and its members.
Our focus on early-career members, through the peer-led workshops and other initiatives, helps us identify new volunteers. Nevertheless, we still have need for volunteers to do everything from leading committees to managing the CHAS Chats to organizing symposia—and those are but a few of the opportunities available. See the call for volunteers later in this issue for more details.
In 2023, I plan to see the Division positioned to bring its mission to life: providing authoritative technical resources and mentorship in chemical health and safety for all. We will organize around the pillars of the new strategic plan: Education, Outreach, and Member Services.
- In education, we will be expanding and deepening CHAS’s workshop offerings for safety professionals (both established and those early in their careers), and we will lay groundwork to expand chemical safety education to those in other chemical fields.
- In outreach, we will revamp the CHAS website and modernize the discussion list with clear content guidelines.
- For our members, we will be continuing the monthly newsletter, as well as prototyping a CHAS Welcome Wagon to orient new members to our resources.
We expect to meet this year’s challenges and take maximum advantage of its opportunities using CHAS’s greatest resource: the energy and expertise of our members.
I look forward to meeting many of you at the Spring and Fall Annual Meetings. I’ll see you soon!
Best regards,
Daniel R. Kuespert, PhD, CSP
Chair 2023, CHAS
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Upcoming events/workshops
(M. Nyansa and B. Bresnahan)
The next ACS CHAS EMPOWERING ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS TO STRENGTHEN SAFETY CULTURE Workshop is happening on Sunday, March 05, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 5:30 PM EST. Registration fee is $25 per participant.
This 3.5-hour workshop is primarily directed at frontline researchers in academic institutions: graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and undergraduate students. This workshop discusses the challenges of students making the transition to being independent researchers in academia. Topics discussed include: risk assessment of research projects, understanding the often confusing safety hierarchies of academic institutions, and graduate student-led Laboratory Safety Teams.
Workshop goals are to:
- Educate participants about the value of risk assessment
- Guide participants towards gaining awareness of safety culture messages from the leadership at their institutions
- Empower participants to expand their safety networks and develop laboratory safety teams.
Faculty and safety staff are encouraged to attend in order to expand their understanding of these challenges and seek ways to become better Champions for these researchers.
This workshop is designed to be highly interactive and those who have reported the workshop as useful were typically those who were heavily engaged in the workshop.
This workshop is brought to you by the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety as one of two workshops in the ACS CHAS Peer Led Workshop Series. To learn more about the Division and the ACS CHAS Peer Led Workshop Series, please visit the main website at dchas.org.
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RAMP IN THE RESEARCH LAB Workshop is happening on Thursday, April 13, 2023 from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM EST. Learn the principles of the RAMP paradigm through a series of case studies and discussion sessions focused on practicing each of the RAMP steps. This 3-hour workshop is primarily directed at frontline researchers in academic institutions: graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and undergraduate students. Faculty and safety staff are also encouraged to attend to learn strategies to better prepare the student researchers on their campuses for risk management of their experimental work.
This workshop is designed to be highly interactive, both to encourage networking among our participants and to support participants in developing functional plans to take back to their institutions. We utilize the Zoom platform to support both large group and small group activities. Those who have reported the workshop as useful are also those who heavily engaged. The participants add value to this workshop as much, if not more than, the organizers!
This workshop is brought to you by the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety as one of two workshops in the ACS CHAS Peer Led Workshop Series. To learn more about the Division and the ACS CHAS Peer Led Workshop Series, please visit our main website at dchas.org.
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Articles and News Stories
This article published in Organometallics, An Illustrated Guide to Schlenk Line Techniques might be useful to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. It does a good job discussing the different safety considerations working with a Schlenk line in Section 3.
Image is from the abstract.
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Request for volunteers
Elections for 2024 CHAS officers is quickly approaching. In order to be included on the May 2023 ballot all eligible interested CHAS members must be nominated by one of two methods:
- Nomination – CHAS members may nominate any eligible member for no more than one of the available positions by identifying the name of the nominee and the respective elected position. As you are considering your nominations it would be wise to ensure that the prospective nominee is willing to serve.
- Self-nomination – Members may nominate themselves with a clear declaration of interest in a specific position and the name of a different CHAS member who will second that self-nomination.
Additional notes:
- Where possible please include a brief biographical sketch of the nominee with the nomination
- Nominations will only be accepted via email to chris.incarvito**At_Symbol_Here**yale.edu and biocmst**At_Symbol_Here**gmail.com
- The deadline for the nomination and accompanying biographical sketch is Friday March 17, 2023 with no exceptions. The list of nominees will be reviewed for accuracy and eligibility at the meeting of the Executive Committee in Indianapolis.
Chair-Elect
The duties of the Chair-Elect shall be to assist the Chair with the direction and management of the Division. In addition to the more static responsibilities of leading the Division, several duties evolve over time in response to the needs of the Division and ACS. This position is part of the chair succession and the incumbent must commit to a three-year term (Chair-Elect, Chair, Immediate Past Chair).
Councilor
The Council acts as an advisory body in matters pertaining to the general management of ACS. Councilors serve for three-year terms and there is an expectation that the incumbent is familiar with ACS governance and leadership. The Councilor is a direct representative of the Division with the Council of the Society. They represent the Division views on governance matters before the ACS.
Secretary
The duties of the Secretary shall be to keep a record of the minutes of the meetings of the Division and of the Executive Committee, to maintain a list of members and affiliates, to send to members and affiliates such notices as the business of the Division may require, to submit a report to the Division at its annual meeting, and to carry out the duties required by the Constitution and Bylaws of ACS and CHAS. The Secretary shall preside over meetings in the absence of both the Chair and Chair-Elect.
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Announcements
(S. Sigmann)
After two years of work by ACS Safety Programs (Marta Gurmuzyk) and three other subject matter experts (Sue Wiediger, Jenny Bishoff, and Sammye Sigmann), the professional development eLearning course for high school teachers, Foundations for Storing, Organizing and Disposing of Chemicals in Educational Settings, has been launched at the ACS Institute Learning Center. While high school teachers are the primary target audience, this course would be valuable to anyone who manages and uses chemicals in an educational setting - including graduate students. The course provides six lessons and should take ~10 hrs to complete. A certificate of completion and documentation that can be used to obtain continuing education credits are provided.
- Introduction 30 minutes
- Lesson One – RAMP & Chemical Hazard Information 1.5 hrs
- Lesson Two – Chemical Safety Information Sources 1.5 hrs
- Lesson Three – The EPA and Unwanted Chemicals 1.0 hr
- Lesson Four – Chemical Inventory 1.0 hr
- Lesson Five – Chemical Storage 1.5 hrs
- Lesson Six – Hazardous Waste - What Teachers Need to Know 2.0 hrs
- Next Steps – Prepare Your Action Plan 1.0 hr
TOTAL 10 hours
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Urgent positions
(contact Dan Kuespert, CHAS Chair-Elect, dkuespert**At_Symbol_Here**pm.me)
Outreach Committee Chair
CHAS is trying to stand up a new committee to handle communications with stakeholders, including members, outside organizations, the public, etc.
- The Outreach Committee needs a chair to coordinate its projects.
- The chair is not expected to take on a primary role in projects unless they elect to do so—the CHAS Executive Committee will assist in recruiting committee members to do most of the project work.
- Estimated time commitment would be about 2-3 hours/week with an extra hour or so during for the week of the monthly committee meeting (prep and followup time).
- Dr. Joe Pickel of Oak Ridge National Lab (former CHAS Chair) is willing to mentor the incumbent.
- Projects the Outreach Committee will be expected to take on (not all at once) include:
- Publishing the CHAS email newsletter
- Managing the CHAS website (see above)
- Handling bulk emails to members
- Maintaining the CHAS mailbox and routing inquiries appropriately
- Other projects as assigned— additional project proposals are likely to be prompted by the Strategic Plan, which the Executive Committee will then consider for funding as required.
Committee participation
CHAS has several committees that need members. Time commitments vary from 1/2 hour per week and up—consult with the committee chair with whom you are interested working (or if there is not yet a chair, with Dan Kuespert, Chair-Elect, dkuespert**At_Symbol_Here**pm.me).
Membership Committee (chair: Taysir Bader, bader072**At_Symbol_Here**umn.edu)
The Membership Committee is responsible for communication and outreach to CHAS members and other ACS stakeholders in order to encourage member recruitment and retention.
Help is needed for projects like
- Staffing Division Row at the Sci-Mix component of ACS National Meetings
- Researching member opinions of CHAS projects and offerings
- Contacting new members (a “Welcome Wagon” service)
- Contacting non-renewing members (an exit interview)
- Matching early-career members with more established professionals for 1-on-1 or group mentoring (tentative project)
Outreach Committee (chair TBD, contact Dan Kuespert, dkuespert**At_Symbol_Here**pm.me)
The Committee’s mission is to to be ambassadors of the organization with stakeholders including members, ACS divisions, and the public.
Help is needed for projects including
- Handling bulk emails to members
- Writing the monthly CHAS newsletter (and building relationships with other divisions to trade content)
- Managing the CHAS website (Web Manager)
- Maintaining the CHAS mailboxes and routing messages to the appropriate committee/person
- Working with the Program Committee to source co-sponsored meeting content.
Program Committee (chair: Debbie Decker, Debbie.m.decker**At_Symbol_Here**gmail.com)
The Committee’s mission is to source, curate, and provide CHAS programming at the ACS National Meetings.
Help is needed for the following positions:
- Spring 2024 Meeting Chair (This is a pretty time-consuming position, but the Committee will train and support you.)
- Representative to the Multidisciplinary Program Planning Group (MPPG: Handles interdisciplinary meeting content and chooses meeting themes.)
- General Posters lead (and Sci-Mix lead)
- Symposium organizers (you can organize based on your own idea or off a list of Committee joint ideas)
- Early-career programs (Subcommittee chair: Jessica Martin, Jessica.a.martin**At_Symbol_Here**uconn.edu)
- Professional programs (Subcommittee chair: Russ Phifer, rphifer**At_Symbol_Here**wcenvironmental.com)
- General committee members (educational expertise preferred, e.g., curriculum development, adult-learner teaching) for assisting subcommittees as required and for developing new programs for other stakeholders (e.g., ACS Divisions).
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Useful links and resources
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The Committee on Local Section Activities (LSAC) is proud to partner with ACS President-Elect, Judy Giordan to provide ACS local section leaders with access to a wide range of speakers for their in-person, virtual, hybrid, and asynchronous events. As Judy noted in her C&EN Comment, the aim of the virtual Speaker Service is to support all local sections with cost-effective and easy access to a diverse group of global speakers who want to share their expertise and passion for chemistry on a wide variety of topics.
Are you interested in signing up to be a speaker? Register today!
ACS online catalog. A collection of the various ACS units working with safety programming and the audience they serve. https://axial.acs.org/rampupsafety/
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Discussion of Ohio train derailment
The long term effects of the Ohio train derailment in East Palestine as well as the extent of exposure to harmful chemicals are still being investigated. Below is a collection of useful resources from a chemical safety perspective that can help explain the tragedy in more detail.
Published information about released chemicals from Newsweek:
- Vinyl chloride: a colorless gas used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics and is highly flammable and decomposes to make toxic fumes. According to the National Library of Medicine, it is also carcinogenic and can cause other health issues.
- Butyl acrylate: a clear liquid that is used for making paints, sealants and adhesives. It is flammable and can cause skin, eye and respiratory irritation.
- Ethylhexyl acrylate: a colorless liquid used to make paints and plastics. It can cause skin and respiratory irritation and, under moderate heat, can produce hazardous vapor.
- Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether: a colorless liquid used as a solvent for paint and inks, as well as some dry cleaning solutions. It is classed as acutely toxic, able to cause serious or permanent injury, and highly flammable. Vapors can irritate the eyes and nose, and ingestion can cause headaches and vomiting.
- Various information about vinyl chloride
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Please fill out the associated survey to help us better understand how you benefit from CHAS communications and how we can improve. This is part of a larger strategic aiming project to decide the future direction of CHAS.
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