• Question: Have you ever gotten into a dangerous situation with any science experiments?

    Asked by anon-242685 to Zahra, Peter, Mairi, Elliott, Danica, Ane, Áine on 11 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Danica Pinto

      Danica Pinto answered on 11 Mar 2020:

      Hi Echo,

      Luckily none 🙂 while working in a lab we make sure to follow certain safety checks before we start any experiments to avoid any accidents. Since I worked in a laser laboratory and my project involved using ultraviolet (UV) light source, care was taken by wearing suitable personal protective equipment like safety goggles to protect our eyes from harmful UV radiation and gloves to protect the skin. We also used safety boots during any mechanical work in lab. The lab was also equipped with interlock laser safety wherein the lasers would shut down in case anyone entered the room without authorisation. We also have lab safety training to work with lasers and compressed gas cylinders that we use in our labs. And during school days our teachers always gave us safety instructions before starting any experiments.

    • Photo: Zahra Rattray

      Zahra Rattray answered on 11 Mar 2020:

      Echo,
      I’ve been really lucky to have always taken care of safety. The most dangerous situation I’ve been in is working with new medicines that are toxic. You just end up wearing loads of protective clothing and working in a hood. Imagine trying to do something fiddly in a spacesuit!

    • Photo: Ane Valera

      Ane Valera answered on 19 Mar 2020:

      I have once. You have to be very careful about which chemicals you can mix or you can not, as if they mix, terrible consequences could happen.
      We were in the lab as any normal day, and someone mixed the day before two chemicals that can not be mixed together in a bottle and that person closed the bottle.
      The next morning, the closed bottle had so much gas inside and so much accumulated pressure inside that exploded and all the crystals went everywhere with the content of the bottle.
      Luckily no one was close to the explosion but it could have harmed someone and be really fatal.
      When this things happen, we have to immediately tell the Health and Safety team and they will explain the cause of the accident and tell us more useful information for that not to happen again.

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