From:
Jennifer L. Gile <00001941b0f60f67-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject:
Re: [DCHAS-L] [EXTERNAL] [DCHAS-L] Fire extinguisher training
Date:
Mar 28, 2024 16:45 UTC
Reply-To:
ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID:
<BL3PR04MB791465FD8E3DFA1E34C441B7CA3B2**At_Symbol_Here**BL3PR04MB7914.namprd04.prod.outlook.com>
In-Reply-To:
<CAJug0Ow3zQL13e54yrwTJGbYsKsK8KLRZoGwUw4USFd6WZA6YA**At_Symbol_Here**mail.gmail.com>
Hello Ben and DCHAS members,
At my institution (small private liberal arts college) we do fire extinguisher training every fall semester. It’s tied to a Hydrogen Spectrum lab that allows for students to rotate through the lab and the fire extinguisher training. It
also means the students aren’t wearing their goggles, which is great because I do not want their muscle memory to respond to a fire with, “where are my googles?”. We invite the entire campus community (refreshers never hurt!) and the local fire department
comes in to talk to the students as well as supervising the students putting out ethanol fires using CO2 extinguishers that we get just for this training. The training has been in mid-November lately, which ties in nicely with Thanksgiving, currently the
day of the year with the most fire emergencies (thank you deep fat fried turkeys). The training takes about 20-30 minutes (it’s quick!) and we run it with each of our gen chem labs.
The training also emphasizes the importance of getting out of the building and doing things like pulling the fire alarm or door shut as you go. The firefighters presentation talks about “back to sleep” as well as “close before you doze”.
It’s their chance to educate the public as well.
Personally I think it’s fantastic that we are preparing our students to be safe outside of lab.
Jennifer.
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
On Behalf Of Benjamin Ruekberg
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2024 8:48 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [DCHAS-L] Fire extinguisher training
|
*** This email was sent from a non-Wittenberg email service ***
|
Hello,
I was wondering how the group members feel about fire extinguisher training as a part of safety training in undergraduate laboratory courses.
A recent article in Journal of Chemical Education
(DOI:10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c012990) indicated that approximately 45% of undergraduates were given fire extinguisher training as part of their chemistry laboratory safety training.
While this is useful knowledge in general, it does not seem relevant to undergraduate chemical safety training. In case of a fire, students should not attempt to put out the fire, but rather turn off electricity
and gas for their experiments (conditions permitting), pull the fire alarm, and evacuate the building. It might well be argued that training in the use of fire extinguishers could be interpreted by some students as encouragement to use a fire extinguisher
to fight a laboratory fire--constituting a training in unsafe behavior.
Thus, it would seem that the time spent in fire extinguisher training would be much better spent on important safety issues.
That is just my opinion regarding only undergraduate courses, not necessarily undergraduate or graduate research. Am I missing something or do CHAS members agree?
--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at
membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
