ACS Chemical Health & Safety最新文献

Despite a strong demand for fluorinated molecules in the pharma and agrochemical industry, the production of fluorinated compounds is often outsourced to specialized laboratories. This is likely the result of safety concerns in handling hazardous fluorinating reagents, alongside the lack of expertise and equipment. Continuous flow chemistry has become an established method to perform hazardous reactions in a safe and controlled manner. To address safety issues and technical challenges, we herein provide a detailed description of the design of an advanced fluorine gas delivery system using 10% fluorine in nitrogen. Furthermore, an overview of suitable flow reactor components and the reactor design on laboratory scale is furnished. The safety precautions to mitigate risks associated with handling 10% fluorine in nitrogen are also covered and include safety equipment integrated in the fluorine facility, risk assessment, personal protective equipment, and first aid measures.

Numerous injuries and fatalities in chemical laboratories in the United States over the past few decades have suggested the need to take measures that go beyond mere compliance and toward promoting safer practices. A collaboration between the Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources and Purdue Process Safety and Assurance Center assessed the current safety culture in chemical laboratories at their academic and industrial partners by conducting safety surveys. Key areas of improvement were identified from the responses to the safety surveys, which if addressed can mitigate the severity of safety incidents or prevent them from occurring. The findings indicate that a majority of the respondents from academia conduct comprehensive lab safety trainings (～80%), have standard operating procedures for potentially hazardous activities (～90%), regularly discuss safety-related issues during lab group meetings (～85%), or are involved in routine safety inspections (～85%). However, fewer of the academic respondents were aware of a database for safety incidents in their departments (～50%) or utilized a standard safety review process for new experimental setups or modifications to existing setups (～70%). The results from industry respondents suggest that improvements to commonly used hazard evaluation tools and increased accessibility to comprehensive databases can increase the effectiveness of hazard evaluation processes. Additionally, recommended best practices and guidelines are provided for researchers within the scientific community to develop key safety documentation that will both strengthen the safety culture and improve safety performance in their laboratories. Taken together, this safety initiative highlights the much-needed attention and effort that are beneficial to promote improved safety culture within academic and industrial chemical laboratories.

This study aims at providing general characteristics of safety problems and current mitigation plans in academic laboratories in Thailand. This empirical study utilizes the “Enhancement of Safety Practice in Research Laboratory in Thailand” (ESPReL) checklists to identify safety problems focusing on three aspects: the chemical management system; the waste disposal system; and laboratories, equipment, and tools. The experiment gathers safety evaluation reports from 17 educational buildings with laboratories located on a university campus. The methodology includes various procedures, including walk-through observations, documentation, user interview, specialist evaluation, and stakeholders’ data verification. Finally, all the analyzed data identified common safety problems and reviewed existing mitigation plans. The finding shows common laboratory safety problems in laboratories, equipment, and tool components, where both specialists’ and laboratory users’ assessments indicate significant concerns that indicate the need for urgent improvement. In addition, the difference in results between the two parties’ evaluation occurs in some aspects, suggesting the enhancement in integrating the laboratory safety rules and guidelines into safer user habits. In conclusion, the study highlights the necessity to improve laboratories’ physical attributes and facility design, as well as refurbish the building engineering systems and safety equipment to the current building standards. Moreover, the safety awareness gap is another issue that should not be overlooked. Further study suggests investigating facility management or user-behavior effects to narrow down the gaps to improve safety in academic laboratories.

In 2002, a large hole was discovered in the reactor vessel head of the Davis-Besse plant located in Ohio, US. Had the reactor pressure vessel ruptured, a major public safety event would have occurred. Further investigations revealed that, by the end of 2001, a shutdown order was drafted by the Regulatory Agency. Nonetheless, through a risk-informed decision-making approach, the Agency changed the decision related to the issuance of the order. Operations were then allowed to continue for six more weeks, despite the high likelihood that the reactor was operating with leaking cracks in the nozzles located at the reactor head. The reactor vessel head wastage, which had evolved unnoticed for years, was primarily due to borated water that leaked through a nozzle crack onto the carbon steel portion of the reactor head, resulting in boric acid corrosion. This paper aims to explore the Agency’s decision-making to identify factors that might have contributed to the flawed decision. A better comprehension on the organizational factors and social processes that can adversely affect risk-informed decisions is crucial to enhance operational safety in high hazard industries. The paper concludes by suggesting possible ways to guard against the identified factors.

In this paper, we discuss a novel approach to chemical storage based on the physical properties of the chemicals (reactivity, solid or liquid, and volume) and the intrinsic hazards associated with a chemical as identified by the hazard statements. These are indicated on a substance’s safety data sheet (SDS), for example, oxidizing, flammability, toxicity, and compatibility with other chemicals. We introduce a flowchart to identify appropriate storage locations for each chemical in the laboratory and describe what amendments could be needed to our system if it is replicated at another institution. We describe the advantages of using a chemical inventory system and how it was integrated with our storage guidance. Finally, we provide insights and share lessons learnt on maintaining good chemical management.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, which is caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has continued to spread around the world since December 2019. Healthcare workers and other medical first responders in particular need personal protective equipment to protect their respiratory system from airborne particulates, in addition to liquid splashes to the face. N95 respirator have become a critical component for reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission and controlling the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a major dispute concerning the protective performance of N95 respirators has erupted, with a myriad of healthcare workers affected despite wearing N95 masks. This article reviews the most recent updates about the performance of N95 respirators in protecting against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the present pandemic situation. A brief overview of the manufacturing methods, air filtration mechanisms, stability, and reusability of the mask is provided. A detailed performance evaluation of the mask is studied from an engineering point of view. This Review also reports on a comparative study about the protective performance of all commercially available surgical and respiratory masks used to combat the spread of COVID-19. With the aim of protecting healthcare providers more efficiently, we suggest some potential directions for the development of this respiratory mask that improve the performance efficiency of the mask.