DCHAS-L Archives, Jun 16, 2026 - Re: [DCHAS-L] I Remember When…”: Reflecting on the Evolution of Laboratory Safety

Hi Marta,

A few thoughts…

January 7^th, 2010. That date will forever be etched in my brain as the date that academic chemical laboratory safety became something that really mattered not only to me but to our entire university. I was Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas Tech at the time. Chemical safety had fallen into being the responsibility of individual faculty members or peers to teach to their students or colleagues. Our relationship with Environmental Health and Safety had become at worst adversarial and at best lackadaisical. We were aware of the horrible accident that had happened in 209 at UCLA, but the thought was that it could never happen to us. Then on January 7^th, 2010, the unthinkable happened. One of our graduate students was seriously injured in an accident that was entirely avoidable.

Fortunately, others around the country were beginning to consider academic laboratory safety as something that needed to be improved. Within 24 hours of the accident, I received a call from the National Chemical Safety Board (NCSB). They were beginning to consider academic laboratory safety, and we were the first major accident of the year (there is a move afoot to close down the NCSB by the federal government, with the statement that most of what they do can be handled by other agencies, such as the EPA. I respectfully disagree. I believe that the national transformation of academic laboratory safety within the past 15 years or so would not have occurred without the combined efforts of the NCSB and the American Chemical Society (ACS). Their scope is broad and their voice is important). Soon we were visited by the (at the time) National Chemical Safety Board investigators Mary Beth Mulcahy and Cheryl MacKenzie. Their investigation, and the resulting publications that resulted later that year, began a real change in the way that we teach academic laboratory safety and in how cultures of safety are developed at universities.

Much of what happened in our transformation at Texas Tech has already been documented. I would like to add a personal note to the record. During my one-on-one meeting with Mary Beth and Cheryl I realized that our student’s accident had left me with some PTSD. I was the third person on the scene and saw the student’s injuries first-hand (they were severe). As I was remembering what I had seen during the interview, I became very emotional. I remember telling Mary Beth and Cheryl, actually making a promise to them, that to the extent that I had any ability to promote change, I would work tirelessly so that nothing like what happened at Texas Tech would happen again. I would be an agent of change to help develop cultures of safety. For the past 16 years I have kept that promise. We have changed so much over the past decade and a half in how we treat academic chemical safety. I am glad that Texas Tech has been a part of that transformation.

What stands out most to me about the transformation is how so many people have stopped paying lip service to academic laboratory safety but instead have chosen to embrace it, especially younger scientists. There is an amazing list serve and discussion platform for the chemical health and safety community. The Laboratory Safety Institute and the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA) were some of the early groups that taught the need for safety and the consequences if safety practices were not followed. The ACS has put out so many wonderful documents and products to promote safety in both teaching and research laboratory settings, especially through the Division of Chemical Health and Safety (DCHAS). We now have a marvelous journal (ACS Chemical Health and Safety) which promotes laboratory safety at all levels both academic and industrial. Laboratory safety is a significant priority for the ACS and I very much appreciate that June is dedicated to the pillar of safety. For me personally, what stands out are all the incredible people I have met over the past 16 years who continue to have a real passion for laboratory safety. It has been a fruitful and educational journey. There is so much more to do. As long as there are risks and hazards associated with what we do as scientists, there will always be a need to think about and talk about how to mitigate those risks. And so the journey continues…

Dom Casadonte

Dominick J. Casadonte, Jr.

Minnie Stevens Piper Professor

Fellow, American Chemical Society

Fulbright Senior Scholar, France

Discovery Corps Fellow, National Science Foundation

TTU President’s Excellence in Teaching Professor

Council on Undergraduate Research-Goldwater Scholars National Faculty Mentor Awardee

President’s Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and

Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) Awardee, The White House and NSF

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Texas Tech University

Lubbock, TX 79409/

Dominick.Casadonte**At_Symbol_Here**ttu.edu (E-mail)

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU> on behalf of "Gmurczyk, Marta" <00001fa03b1fa040-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 at 9:16 AM
To: "DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU" <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] I Remember When…”: Reflecting on the Evolution of Laboratory Safety

This email originated outside TTU. Please exercise caution!

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

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU> On Behalf Of Mabrouk, Patricia
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2026 11:46 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [EXT] Re: [DCHAS-L] I Remember When…”: Reflecting on the Evolution of Laboratory Safety

[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?

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU> On Behalf Of Gmurczyk, Marta
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2026 4:26 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] I Remember When…”: Reflecting on the Evolution of Laboratory Safety

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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