Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Safety

Each organic chemistry student should become familiar with the educational and governmental laboratory safety requirements.One method for teaching laboratory safety is to assign each student to locate safety resources for a specific class laboratory experiment.The student should obtain toxicity and hazardous information for all chemicals used or produced during the assigned experiment. For example, what is the LD50 or LC50 for each chemical? Are there any specific hazards for these chemicals, carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen, neurotixin, chronic toxin, corrosive, flammable, or explosive agent?The school's "Chemical Hygiene Plan", "Prudent Practices for Handling Hazardous Chemicals in the Laboratory" (National Academy Press), and "Laboratory Standards, Part 1910 - Occupational Safety and Health Standards" (Fed. Register 1/31/90, 55, 3227-3335) should be reviewed for laboratory safety requirements for the assigned experiment. For example, what are the procedures for safe handling of vacuum systems, if a vacuum distillation is used in the assigned experiment?The literature survey must be submitted to the laboratory instructor one week prior to the laboratory session for review and approval.The student should then give a short presentation to the class on the chemicals' toxicity and hazards and describe the safety precautions that must be followed.This procedure gives the student first-hand knowledge on how to find and evaluate information to meet laboartory safety requirements.