Posted By Merv Newman http://www.slate.com/id/2218825/ This happened in America. Does it ring any bells for those in similar situations in the UK ? I worked for more than 10 years as a lab technician, including a spell in a research lab handling some serious biohazards. Fortunately I only caught one non-fatal (evidently) disease. (let's not talk about the rabid rabbit) I do hope some things, at least in the UK, have changed since. Merv

Posted By Graham Bullough For those who haven’t looked at the webpage quoted by Merv, it deals with the death of a young laboratory technician at an American university while decanting a spoonful of lithium compound from one container to another. Lithium and other elements such as sodium are pyrophoric, i.e. they burn spontaneously if exposed to air or, to be precise, the oxygen component of air. The page relates how some of the rapidly burning compound landed on the technician’s sweatshirt made of synthetic flammable fabric and she suffered horrific burns from which she died 18 days later. If she had been wearing a lab coat perhaps it’s possible that she might have been able to take the coat off and thus reduced the extent and degree of the burns she received. However, this is debatable in view of the suddenness and ferocity of the situation which engulfed her. A more fundamental aspect of the case is the technician’s apparent lack of knowledge of the compound’s dangerous property, especially the need to avoid any exposure of it to air. Though the page does not say so, it would be interesting to know if the container from which the technician took the spoonful bore any warning information. Even if it did have appropriate information, would it have meant anything to the technician? I can’t answer Merv’s question as to whether or not the same sort of incident could happen in UK universities and similar establishments. However, it’s pertinent to mention that UK secondary school science departments generally teach pupils about a highly reactive bunch of elements, namely the alkalis. To my knowledge this includes a demonstration in which a very small amount of lithium is dropped onto water where it fizzes round at high speed as it reacts with air. The same is done with sodium, especially to demonstrate how much more reactive it is than lithium. (It's possible that the same is done with potassium which is even more reactive than sodium. Can anyone confirm or deny this?) Thus, it is to be hoped that young people in the UK learn about such elements and their compounds, partly through seeing and remembering the impressive alkali demonstrations. No doubt their teachers enhance such learning by discussing the precautions taken for the demonstrations, including the use of only very small amounts. As an aside, CLEAPSS the School Science Service showed a video clip at one of its recent annual conferences of what happens when a large amount of lithium is exposed to air! I recall that the exercise was partly to help some schools dispose of excess amounts of lithium in one go at a suitably remote location. My understanding is that pupils in American secondary schools see far fewer experiments than British pupils, whether as demonstrations conducted by teachers or ones they actually do themselves. This presumably stems from Americans having a more intense culture than Brits of compensation claims and risk avoidance. If my understanding is correct, then perhaps the limited extent of practical science teaching in America is partly to blame for the technician’s death.

Posted By Raymond Rapp The university was fined $31,875 for multiple serious violations...are you kidding?