Dear Don,

I am so incredibly grateful for this story. Over the years, you have supported and participated in nearly every ACS initiative aimed at strengthening safety education and building a stronger culture of safety in academic laboratories. You have truly been an agent of change, always willing to say "yes" to ACS safety projects and to share your expertise, time, and enthusiasm.

I am not sure whether you are aware that Dr. Finster and Dr. Hall donated their textbook, Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students, to ACS. We have since published it as a free e-textbook, making it available to students and educators worldwide at no cost

 

We are seeing a growing number of adoptions, which is particularly gratifying because it addresses one of the key recommendations from the ACS CCS Task Force report, Creating Safety Cultures in Academic Institutions.

.One of its central recommendations is:

Teaching laboratory and chemical safety—Every chemist needs an in-depth knowledge of laboratory and chemical safety. This safety knowledge and education throughout the educational process. The report identifies approximately 80 safety topics that should be incorporated into chemical education and stresses the importance of developing students' critical thinking skills in laboratory and chemical safety, rather than simply teaching rules and compliance. The e-Textbook provides a complete curriculum to address this recommendation.

 

CHAS is also leading the development of the Research Faculty Leadership Workshop, which will introduce researchers to many of the risk management tools developed by the ACS Task Force, of which you were an important part. This work grew out of the ACS charge to provide practical tools and resources for managing risk in research laboratories.https://institute.acs.org/acs-center/lab-safety/hazard-assessment/task-force.html

 

The first edition of this guidance was published as Identifying and Assessing Hazards in Research Laboratories PDF document , accompanied by online resources and tools on the ACS website. The CCS Safety Advisory Panel is currently developing the second edition, building on the strong foundation established by the original effort.

 

Your many contributions have helped shape these initiatives, and it is wonderful to see how they continue to evolve, reach new audiences, and influence the next generation of chemists. Thank you for everything you have done to advance academic laboratory safety  and foster stronger safety cultures in academic research.

With gratitude,

Marta

 

 

 

 

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU> On Behalf Of Casadonte, Dominick
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 12:20 PM
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]

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

This email originated outside TTU. Please exercise caution!

 

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