Chemical accidents have underlying causes and by examining the details of an accident we can learn the cause and reduce the risks of future accidents. Accidents can also be used by teachers to educate administrators to the need of chemical removal, time to inventory and maintain chemicals and the need for safety equipment and proper storage. We feel the incidence of chemical accidents in school settings is underestimated and much needs to be done to reduce the risk of future accidents. If you have a accident to report please e-mail it to us.
An Aroostook County, Maine, teacher elects to dispose of one quarter pound of potassium metal by attaching the container to a long wooden stick and dumping it into a metal waste basket full of water in the school parking lot. The resulting explosion sends shrapnel flying and does minor damage to cars in the parking lot. Miraculously no one was injured. (Personal communication, July, 1988)
A Connecticut High School teacher substituted mercuric oxide for silver oxide in an experiment. Twenty-two students working in pairs heated 1.75 grams over a Bunsen burner for 15 minutes. After massing the heated material the teacher realized that the mercury was being vaporized and the students were evacuated. Three days after the incident, testing of the students revealed 8 of them had elevated mercury in their urine. Three months later one student still had elevated mercury levels. (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC, March 18, 1988)
A Massachusetts High School was shut down after picric acid and ethyl ether were found. Read Newspaper Article (91k) about this incident.
Several students are seriously injured when a middle school teacher demonstrates an explosion. Read Newspaper Article (225k) about this accident.
A students gains access to a storage room and deliberately breaks a mercury barometer. The cost of the cleanup and disposal exceeds $5000. (Personal communication, May, 1998)
A student at a health career fair squeezes the bulb on a mercurial sphygmomanometer until mercury spurts out the top of the apparatus. The cost of the cleanup and disposal exceeded $1500. (Personal communication, February, 1999)
A 14-year old boy put potassium dichromate in a bottle of soda two students were sharing in a physical science lab. The two students became seriously ill and were rushed to a hospital. Reported by Dr. Waren Kingsley in Chemical Health and Safety, March/April 1999, volume 6, number 2, p.48.
The following incidents are abstracted from Dr. Jay Young’s column Anecdotal Accidents which appears in each issue of Chemical Health and Safety published by the American Chemical Society and the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety, 1155 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20056.
1. A student received minor facial injuries when she added concentrated sulfuric acid to a wet test tube provided by her lab partner. The contents boiled out of the tube a struck her in the face. Her lab partner had not dried the tube as instructed. January/February 2000 volume 2, number 1, p. 4
2. One person was killed and another injured when a bottle of hydrofluoric acid was compacted in a garbage truck as the attendant stood by the side of the truck. March/ April 1997, volume 4, number 2, p. 7.
3. Students in a high school science lab were allowed to fill empty alcohol burners using a funnel and a container of alcohol located on a side bench. When the funnel was misplaced, students began filling the burners directly from the container. Alcohol was spilled on the lab bench. When a student approached the bench with a still glowing burner a fire ensued in which the alcohol container was knocked over and a student was drenched in alcohol. The student was eventually knocked to the floor and the flames extinguished. Unfortunately it was too late and the student died of her burns. (see: SOP Alcohol burners). September/October 1995, volume 2, number 5, p.5.
4. The first recorded case of a fatality from ingestion of sulfuric acid occurred when a teenager drank what he thought was milk. Someone had placed sulfuric acid in a cardboard milk carton which is lined with a chemically resistant coating. The boy died two weeks after ingesting several milliliters. September/October 1998, volume 5, number 5, p.4.
5. A carpenter who attempted to unplug a drain was found dead. A bottle of 95% sulfuric acid and an alkaline solution of sodium hypochlorite (bleach) was found at the site of the accident. From the evidence presented it was estimated the man had inhaled chlorine gas at a concentration of 25,000 ppm for 5-10 seconds. The immediately dangerous to life and health concentration (IDLH) is 30 ppm. July/August 1998, volume 5, number 4, p.4.
6. A four year old received chemical burns over 40% of his body when he slipped and fell into a spill of sulfuric acid. The custodian was using a 95% sulfuric acid drain cleaner to clean a toilet bowl. When he left to get something to clean up the cleaner he had spilt on the floor, the boy entered the rest room and slipped on the spill. The boy was washed off and rushed to the hospital but lost the use of one leg and arm. July/August 1995, volume 2, number 4, p.5.
7. Two students were severely burned when they attempted to pour methanol in a "juice cannon" which had recently been fired. The residual methanol was still burning and flashed back causing the gallon container of methanol to explode. March/April 1999, volume 6, number 2, p.5.
Anonymous Contributions:
1. A student knocked over a 100 ml bottle of butyric acid in the fumehood. Most of the acid was cleaned up by the teacher but the plastic containment was not cleaned up. The teacher left the fumehood on all night to vent the remaining vapor. When the teacher entered the school the next day he was confronted by the head of maintenance who questioned him about a mysterious smell in the home economics room. To the teachers astonishment the room smelt strongly of butyric acid. As it happened the superintendent, principal and assistant principal were all out of town at conferences. The guidance councilor was in charge. When he arrived he called the poison control center and was told that the vapor was flammable and that the fumes could put students at risk. In the interim the chemistry teacher and the head of maintenance had entered the attic space and found the problem. The summer before a pitched roof had been placed over the original flat roof. In the process the fumehood had not been connected to the outside of the new roof but extended about halfway into the new space below the roof. It appeared that the vented butyric acid vapors had been swept into the area above the home economics area and vented into the room. The guidance councilor decided the risk was too great for pregnant girls and proceeded to call all the girls he thought might be pregnant to the office and dismissed them.
2. A custodian was rendered unconscious when he entered a storage area in a middle school. The teacher had spilled a solution of 37% formaldehyde in the room and failed to tell anyone. Fortunately the custodian was rescued by a friend. After a brief stay at a local hospital he was released.
3. A high school chemistry teacher spilled a one quarter pound bottle of bromine in a wooden box. He was overcome by the vapor and had to be hospitalized. He returned to work six months later and suffered a 20% loss of lung capacity from the incident.
4. Students in a high school chemistry class were studying the difference between mixtures and compounds. In the first part of the lab sulfur was mixed with iron and the sulfur was removed by dissolving the sulfur in carbon disulfide. In the second part of the lab iron and sulfur were mixed in the correct proportions to make iron sulfide. The sample was heated to bring about the desired reaction. Unfortunately some of the students were much faster than others and the two parts of the experiment were occurring at the same time. One student placed her solution of sulfur and carbon disulfide in the chemical crock and put the cover back on. Shortly thereafter a second student placed a hot test tube in the crock. The resulting explosion sent broken glass flying in all directions. Fortunately all the students were wearing goggles and no one was hurt.