Lab accidents by SV

Sheeba Viswarajan:

s_viswarajan — 2014-02-27 11:42:43 UTC

I'll get the ball rolling with few of the ones I have witnessed:

1) Heating solution in a test-tube which was pointing directly at a student.The hot solution splashed on to the student's head!

2) Leaving the gas on and then trying to open the match box to light the Bunsen burner. Nearly set the lab on fire....

3) Bromine water splashed into a student's eye . He was wearing his goggles like a tiara!

4) Damaged jeans due to acid spill. Lab coat was not buttoned up.

SCOTT PEER:

2015-09-15 17:05:22 UTC

Other than the usual cuts from broken glassware; here are two that I have witnessed:

1) Students were not following instructions and messing around, resulting in a year 11 boy getting 2M Sodium Hydroxide in his eyes. Very painful, sore, red eyes. Not to mention a soaking wet face from the eye irrigation.

2) A student picked up a dropping pipette from a previous lesson which contained conc. Sulphuric acid and decided to drop it into a tipex bottle, resulting in a reaction which over spilled onto the students hand causing chemical burns.

Tanzila Mehmood

2015-09-15 19:47:11 UTC

This is a really stressful experience which l had at a school I worked in as an LSA. The year 8 class I was working with had a permanent supply science teacher and were doing a practical using Bunsen burners.The teacher had no control over the class and there was absolute chaos. In this chaos students were lighting their splints and walking around with naked flames!

Ponam Lakhani

2015-09-15 20:19:00 UTC

A lab accident that I unfortunately witnessed was the accidental ignition of a tie, which caused the student to panic and drop a glass beaker on the ground; consequently cutting their hand.

Kiran Hirani

2015-09-15 21:33:16 UTC

A personal experience of a lab accident which occurred was when I was in secondary school. My class carried out an experiment which involved the use of test tubes and boiling tubes, someone dropped the glassware and did not clean up after themselves or inform anyone. I was walking in the lab when I stepped on the broken glassware and the glass piece went through my shoe, luckily I wasn't hurt.

Shima Patel

2015-09-15 21:51:26 UTC

My incident happened back in secondary school, I spilled a drop of a hazardous chemical (HCl if I remember correctly) on my tights, and it made a giant hole in it. Luckily it was just a drop otherwise it would have irritated my skin !

Sohor Addan

2015-09-15 22:10:14 UTC

I lab accident I witnessed happened on my secondary school visit this year. A class of yr8 students were doing the iron, sulur and iron sulfide practical. One of the students was holding the test tube over a Bunsen burner using a test tube holder with the test tube holder in direct contact with the flame. This caused him to drop the hot test tube holder which resulted in the test tube shattering spilling the contents which were molten at that point. Thankfully no one was seriously injured.

2015-09-15 23:04:32 UTC

PHILIP TAIWO

2015-09-15 23:07:35 UTC

On one occasion, when I was in secondary school, I accidentally swallowed a little quantity of sodium hydroxide solution while sucking it into a pipette as the school had no safety filler in those days.

It was a very bitter experience as my tongue and lips became swollen within few seconds of the accident.

Joan Rajasekaran

2015-09-16 00:02:00 UTC

There are 2 incidents that comes to my mind when I think about lab accidents.

1. During my secondary school visits, students were working on exothermic reactions with sulphuric acid and water. A student decided to hold the beaker in hand without any gloves. He spilt the acid onto his hands which burnt his skin.

2. During my school days, my classmate, accidentally left the Bunsen burner turned on overnight. it could have ended very badly.

juba akthar

2015-09-16 06:50:18 UTC

My incident happened back in sixth form when me and my partner were heating up an object in a boiling tube. It must have overheated and it exploded, so glass went everywhere. Even though me and my partner were close to the area we were not hurt, but some of the glass went into another persons lab coat.

2015-09-16 11:02:00 UTC

A lab accident that I had witnessed recently. The pupil

Tahmina

2015-09-16 11:06:20 UTC

A lab accident that I recently witnessed, involved a students hijab catching fire. A part of her hijab was near a flame and it caught fire. This was scary as she reacted extremely badly and required assistance from other members of staff.

Rebecca

2015-09-16 11:19:11 UTC

An accident in a lab I witnessed was when majority of people hadn't connected their equipment properly and all of a sudden the set up of the experiment collapsed and all the glass cracked and shattered everywhere. So not only was it a hazard with sharp glass everywhere but it broke a lot of expensive equipment

Farzana Bhatti

2015-09-18 11:38:24 UTC

I witnessed an incident that happened when I was in secondary school. During the practical my partner accidentally spilled some dilute sulfuric acid on her hand while trying to pour the acid directly from the bottle into the test tube. She developed severe redness and irritation on her skin. This could have been avoided by using a pipette to transfer the acid and wearing gloves while performing the experiment.