Lessons learned
HF lecture bottle explosion
Recently an old gas lecture bottle cylinder of anhydrous hydrogen
fluoride spontaneously exploded within a gas cabinet in the Chemistry building...
Lentivirus II splash on hand
While working in a biosafety cabinet an overfilled capped Eppendorf was opened and a solution containing lentivirus vectors was splashed onto bare skin...
An Eye Splash
A student was working on a bench in a biological-chemical lab with a filter inserted into a 50 ml Falcon tube. While closing the tube’s lid, a chemical was splashed into the student’s eye...
Waste Splash Causing a Chemical Burn
During a waste handling in the lab, a student took a 5 liters waste container out of the chemical hood. While slightly tilting the container out through the sash, liquid waste spilled onto the student’s arm, penetrated through the lab coat and thick clothing, and contacted his skin, causing a chemical skin burn.
A General Power Outage in a Lab Building
A rat entered the faculty’s main electrical cabinet on a Saturday night. The rat’s fur began to smoke, setting off the smoke detection system, which in turn, shut off the entire building’s power supply. The on-call electrician succeeded in fixing the outage only by switching between the building’s main transformers. In the morning it turned out...
Lab Worker Nearly Killed While Working Alone
Two years ago a senior researcher was nearly killed at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee while he worked alone in a laboratory the evening of July 4th. His distillation flask exploded.
Bursting of a PVC pipe
Three students were working at the lab on a late afternoon while hearing a loud bursting sound. The students immediately evacuated the lab, shutting the door behind them...
Skin Exposure to beta-Mercaptoethanol
A student was working in a fume hood with beta-mercaptoethanol (β-ME). The bottle’s cork was broken and glued with parafilm. The bottle was not placed in a secondary container. The student lifted the bottle by its cork, the β-ME bottle fell, the liquid spilled through the front ventilation opening in the chemical hood onto the student's hand.
An Acetonitrile Eye Splash
In a reflux reaction of acetonitrile, while the main medium was heated to 80°C, the condenser spontaneously disconnected from the system, and the reaction medium shot out onto the researcher’s
forehead, reaching his eye...
Injury to fingers while shuttling large containers
In two recent incidents, a 250-liter LN2 Dewar and a -80°c freezer were shuttled from their usual place to a new location in the corridor or inside a laboratory.
During shuttling, the movers’ fingers were crushed; in one case, the crushing was significant.
Chemical Stored on Floor Causes Fire
A simple mistake caused this incident. During an experiment in the fume hood, the users temporarily set a 4 liter glass bottle of cyclohexane on the floor beside the hood.
Pressurized liquid nitrogen dewar outburst
While entering the cold room, a student was hit by a pressure safety valve projected from a pressurized liquid nitrogen dewar...
Uncontrolled exothermic reaction
In a trial to improve an established polymerization reaction, the catalyzing agent was added in a different order than in previous procedures consisting of the same reactants. The reaction resulted in a minor explosion...
An Eye Exposure to Class 4 Femtosecond Laser
A student was working in a laser lab along with his lab manager and PI. The student had to connect two plus and minus cables to a power supply. The cables are in red and black colors for plus and minus, respectively. Then...
Tripping Hazard from an Electrical Cord
A control device was connected to both an electrical supply socket on the wall and a sample in equipment. Due to the socket's location, the power cord extended across the floor, suspended 30 cm above it. A pregnant graduate student needed to refill liquid nitrogen and had to step over the cord. As she did, her foot became entangled in the cord, causing her to trip over it and fall.