• Question: Did you ever work with dangerous chemicals ?

    Asked by 979ntrd34 to Chloe, Irene, Pierre, NULL, Uday on 7 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Irene Regan

      Irene Regan answered on 7 Nov 2015:


      Yes, I sometimes work with dangerous chemicals like Acids.
      But I wear a coat, goggles and gloves when using the chemicals.
      I sometimes put the dangerous chemical into, what is called, a fume hood. This hood takes away all the dangerous smells or vapours.
      If I spill the chemical we have special stuff that we use to wipe it up so that it isn’t dangerous for others.

    • Photo: Chloe Huseyin

      Chloe Huseyin answered on 9 Nov 2015:


      Yes, but like Irene said we take lots of precautions when we do have to use them… Such as only using the chemicals in fume hoods and wearing our personal protective equipment (PPE) like lab coats, safety glasses (goggles) and gloves.

      Every chemical in the laboratory comes with a material safety data sheet (MSDS). This tells you how dangerous them chemical is (like is it toxic, corrosive, dangerous to the environment, etc.). It also tells you what kind of precautions to take (like what PPE you should wear or how to dispose of any waste). You have to be really careful in the lab so we do risk assessments before every new experiment and we have to do lots of training on how to use equipment and perform experiments but it all reduces the chances of accidents and things going wrong so it’s totally worth it.

    • Photo: Uday Bangavadi

      Uday Bangavadi answered on 9 Nov 2015:


      I have worked with Concentrated sulphuric acid for titration process during my chemistry lab work with complete protection. Apart from that No, I haven’t used any dangerous chemicals.

    • Photo: NULL

      NULL answered on 9 Nov 2015:


      Yes, acids, or toxins of all sorts, and radioactive chemicals too. Also some nasty viruses, although I don’t know if they count as chemicals.

      It’s perfectly safe if you are sensible, take all the precautions, and treat any chemical as if it’s dangerous.

    • Photo: Pierre Casaubielh

      Pierre Casaubielh answered on 10 Nov 2015:


      I did work with some very strong acids… Heavy protection gears were required!!!
      We used it to clean some stainless steel parts: if there was any dirty part on the parts, the acid was dissolving them (a drop of it could make serious damage).
      Please wear white coat and googles with dangerous chemicals for your own safety!

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