• Question: have you ever been injured or badly hurt in your line of work?

    Asked by anon-227008 to William, Thibaut "Tibo", Harry, Georgia, Emily, Aimee on 9 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Georgia Orton

      Georgia Orton answered on 9 Nov 2019:

      Thankfully not. There are cases where things go wrong, but we have very strict health and safety to avoid this. Before I do anything in the laboratory I have to fill in a form to list all the dangers involved and what I would do if something goes wrong. When I am working I wear a lab coat, lab glasses and gloves.

      I have had one small explosion but I had planned what to do if anything went wrong and was able to sort it out quickly and safely!

    • Photo: Emily Sparkes

      Emily Sparkes answered on 10 Nov 2019:

      I’m quite clumsy, but luckily I’ve never had any REALLY bad injuries. I once stabbed myself in the thumb with a needle full of pyridine (a rather nasty chemical) which hurt but luckily none of the chemical went in me. I’ve also cut myself with a scalpel, singed my fringe because I forgot my bunsen burner was on and cut my hand on a glass vial that I acidentally crushed while opening.

    • Photo: Aimee Egglestone

      Aimee Egglestone answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      I have sustained a few injuries and had a few scares, but fortunately I have never done any serious damage.

      I burned my hand by picking up a boiling tube which had just been on a Bunsen Burner (I was 13 for that one though). I have breathed in my fair share of Acid fumes, which wasn’t enjoyable. And I have even overfilled bottles and ended up covered in chemicals (fortunately it was Acetone, which isn’t too bad for me).

      If you do go into science you need to be more careful than I am!

    • Photo: Harry Wilkinson

      Harry Wilkinson answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Luckily nothing serious!

      The worst I’ve had is stabbing myself with needles a few times, but these aren’t too serious as long as no dangerous chemical enters your bloodstream. Other than that I once gave myself quite a nasty cold burn because I tried to use some liquid nitrogen without insulating gloves. They make you wear protective equipment for a reason!

    • Photo: Thibaut Deviese

      Thibaut Deviese answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Luckily I never had any injury in my work. I guess wearing all the personal protective equipment such as gloves did saved me few times from having drops of chemicals on my skin.
      We can forget that things are dangerous when we manipulate them every day and wearing protective equipment is really important! Don’t forget to wear them!

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