Here is my contribution. I think this is the first time I am writing about it.

 

One of the clearest ways I have seen laboratory safety change over the course of my career is in how much more visible, intentional, and teachable it has become.

 

I completed my undergraduate degree in Türkiye, and I still remember an incident from one of my organic chemistry labs. We were synthesizing a compound, and I was heating a solution in a large beaker. I leaned in to check whether everything had dissolved, and in that moment the solution splashed into my eyes. I stepped back and rubbed my eyes, which I now recognize was exactly the wrong response. What stays with me most is not only the incident itself, but how little safety awareness surrounded it. I had not been given meaningful safety training, I do not remember being taught how to respond to a chemical splash, and I do not even recall whether there was an eyewash or safety shower readily available. I also did not think to report the incident to my instructor. At the time, it simply felt like something to move past.

 

Years later, now working as a Chemical Hygiene Officer, I look back on that moment very differently. It reminds me how much laboratory safety culture has evolved and why that progress matters so deeply. What stands out most to me today is the shift from silence and assumption to preparation and open communication. We now provide safety training before work begins and whenever new tasks are introduced. We talk about hazards before exposure happens. We encourage reporting, not blame. Near misses are treated as learning opportunities, not something to hide. Emergency equipment such as eyewash stations is available, maintained, and tested regularly. Most importantly, safety is no longer treated as an afterthought to the science. It is recognized as part of doing good science well.

 

To me, that is one of the most meaningful transformations in laboratory safety: moving from a culture where incidents were often unspoken and unmanaged to one where safety is integrated into training, operations, and professional responsibility.

 

 

Patricia,

I’m so glad I started this conversation, because we can all celebrate that labs are becoming safer places for researchers. And I completely agree—teaching chemical hazards isn’t about eliminating every hazard or risk, but about intentionally leaving some in place so students can learn risk management (of course in very controlled ways, especially early in their lab experience).

I’ve never seen carpet in a lab, but back in Poland professors often had offices directly connected to the labs, and both spaces had a strong chemical odor, which really showed how poor the ventilation was. I remember professors eating at their desks, smoking, and even walking into the lab with a cigarette to check on something.

Thank you so much for sharing. Marta

 

 

 

[Actual Sender is owner-dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**princeton.edu]

I think this is a really exciting activity.  Here’s my contribution:

 

Chemical safety has changed markedly since I was an undergraduate chemistry major. As a senior, I took an advanced organic chemistry course in which each student worked with a different substrate in reactions involving 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine - yes, that reagent. At the time, there were no SDS documents to consult or right-to-know laws.

 

The risks became very real when I was working alone (yes, alone!) fortunately in a fume hood and my reaction mixture exploded. Some of the mixture landed on the lab carpet (yes, carpet!) and ignited. With no formal training in emergency response, it took me several minutes to figure out how to operate a fire extinguisher before I was finally able to put out the fire.

 

The incident was never discussed afterward (debriefings can be a powerful experience!). Instead, the assistant professor teaching the course wrote up the project and published it with all our names, without asking our permission to be included as co-authors (a separate but notable lapse in professional ethics). My graduate experience, at a leading research institution, was not much better in terms of safety culture.

 

Today, we have, in many ways, moved to the opposite extreme. I increasingly see teaching laboratories emphasize water-based procedures, provide pre-prepared reagents in labeled containers, and elimination of common tools such as Bunsen burners, scalpels, and syringe needles. While these changes are well intentioned, I am concerned that they may inadvertently limit students’ opportunities to develop the practical judgment and technical competence required to work safely in real-world chemical environments.

 

We need to pause and ask: what skills do our students actually need to be both safe and productive in industrial and research settings and are we adequately preparing them to meet those expectations?

 

 

 

 

As we celebrate 150 years of the American Chemical Society, June has been dedicated as the ACS Safety Pillar. I would like to invite members of this vibrant and highly knowledgeable community to join ACS staff in recognizing the remarkable evolution of laboratory safety, becoming a central and integral part of both chemistry education and research.

As scientists, we value data, but stories are also powerful indicators of meaningful and ongoing change.

We would love to hear your perspective.

 

• How has laboratory safety changed over the course of your career, whether over the past 30, 20, or even 5 years?
• What stands out most to you about this transformation?

 

Let’s explore this evolution through a personal lens, perhaps by sharing an “I remember when…” moment that captures how practices, expectations, or culture have shifted over time. These reflections can bring our collective progress to life and resonate deeply across our community.

 

I’m confident there are many powerful stories among us so let’s uncover them together!

 

 

One of my stories:

 

I got my undergraduate degree in Poland, and one of my professors had quite the dramatic introduction to lab safety: he was missing a finger due to a refrigerator explosion in his lab. Our class had about 100 students, and lectures were held in a huge auditorium. During the very first lecture, he proudly displayed his incomplete hand and declared that we were all very brave for choosing chemistry as our future profession. According to him, true scientists should be prepared to make sacrifices at the altar of scientific discovery.

I remember sitting there thinking that perhaps I was not ideal chemist material, since I had no intention of sacrificing any body parts in the name of science.

Of course, after that first lecture, we all laughed about this safety demo, but the professor himself was completely serious. He wore his injury almost like a badge of honor , proof of his “scientific stamina.”

Years later, I heard that his lab was eventually shut down because the refrigerator explosions kept happening, and one of them even destroyed a very expensive piece of instrumentation. I believe he retired shortly after that ban. In hindsight, perhaps the university finally decided that repeated explosions were not an essential component of scientific freedom.

 

Looking back, what once may have been seen as a “badge of honor” now feels more like a reflection of poor safety practices and a lack of professional responsibility. Today, a faculty member proudly displaying injuries from preventable laboratory accidents would likely be viewed not as a scientific hero, but as a liability to the institution. I hope that, thanks to all our collective efforts, our discipline is evolving. Modern chemistry starts recognizing that good scientists are not the ones who cause and survive accidents; they are the ones who create strong safety cultures so accidents do not happen in the first place.

 

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