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Laboratory Accidents
Just thought I'd start a light hearted thread for a bit of comic relief! Post the funniest/most horrific lab based accidents you or your colleagues have suffered 
The worst personal accident I had was reacting some expired surfasil (dichlorooctamethyltetrasiloxane), a gas siliconising agent, for disposal. I followed the supplied MSDS to the letter, I put it in a large beaker inside a larger beaker containing lots of ice, inside the fume hood. I chucked in a whole load of methanol, set the mag stirrer going and pulled the sash down, leaving it to get on with it. After about 20 minutes, all effervescence had ceased, and I removed the vessel from the fume hood. The second I did so, it suddenly started bubbling again, I noticed all the ice had melted and I got a face, lung, nose and eye full of partially broken down siloxanes and a large volume of hydrogen chloride gas. Crap. Ouchies. Lab eye wash station for 15 minutes, transfered to emergency department of local hospital, anaesthetised eye and saline washout, then some very thorough checks involving fluorescent orange stains, then discharged with another incident report to wear like a badge of honour
Worst near miss I've had was fainting in the lab holding a litre bottle of 99.999% formic acid with the cap off >_< Thankfully I fell one way and the bottle rolled and spilled the other! When I came to, my eyes were stinging due to the vapour, I managed to stagger to my feet and cover the puddle in vermiculite before calling for help.
The best incident story comes from one of the technicians at my old school. One of the teachers requested a litre of chlorine gas in a gas jar for a displacement experiment. The technician only had a recipe for 10 litres and it didn't occur to him simply divide by 10, so he brought the teacher 10 litres in 10 gas jars. The teacher asked him to dispose of the remaining 9 in their fume hood, which he did, but he carelessly forgot to turn the extractor on, so the 9 litres of chlorine gas just filled up the one meter cubed space inside the cabinet. When the techy came to retrieve the gas jars, he pulled the sash open and stuck his head in, then promptly collapsed choking! Luckily someone found him immediately and he got bluelighted to hospital!
The worst personal accident I had was reacting some expired surfasil (dichlorooctamethyltetrasiloxane), a gas siliconising agent, for disposal. I followed the supplied MSDS to the letter, I put it in a large beaker inside a larger beaker containing lots of ice, inside the fume hood. I chucked in a whole load of methanol, set the mag stirrer going and pulled the sash down, leaving it to get on with it. After about 20 minutes, all effervescence had ceased, and I removed the vessel from the fume hood. The second I did so, it suddenly started bubbling again, I noticed all the ice had melted and I got a face, lung, nose and eye full of partially broken down siloxanes and a large volume of hydrogen chloride gas. Crap. Ouchies. Lab eye wash station for 15 minutes, transfered to emergency department of local hospital, anaesthetised eye and saline washout, then some very thorough checks involving fluorescent orange stains, then discharged with another incident report to wear like a badge of honour
Worst near miss I've had was fainting in the lab holding a litre bottle of 99.999% formic acid with the cap off >_< Thankfully I fell one way and the bottle rolled and spilled the other! When I came to, my eyes were stinging due to the vapour, I managed to stagger to my feet and cover the puddle in vermiculite before calling for help.
The best incident story comes from one of the technicians at my old school. One of the teachers requested a litre of chlorine gas in a gas jar for a displacement experiment. The technician only had a recipe for 10 litres and it didn't occur to him simply divide by 10, so he brought the teacher 10 litres in 10 gas jars. The teacher asked him to dispose of the remaining 9 in their fume hood, which he did, but he carelessly forgot to turn the extractor on, so the 9 litres of chlorine gas just filled up the one meter cubed space inside the cabinet. When the techy came to retrieve the gas jars, he pulled the sash open and stuck his head in, then promptly collapsed choking! Luckily someone found him immediately and he got bluelighted to hospital!
Scroll to see replies
Reply 1
Hehehe, poor girl
Reply 2
Back in year 9 our teacher was doing a class demonstration with a bunsen burner.
It had a faulty connection and it basically ignited leaking gas in a brief fireball. It was **** scary at the time but no one was hurt and when you look back it was quite exciting seeing everyone diving for cover. I distinctly remember one girl falling backwards off her stool screaming.
It had a faulty connection and it basically ignited leaking gas in a brief fireball. It was **** scary at the time but no one was hurt and when you look back it was quite exciting seeing everyone diving for cover. I distinctly remember one girl falling backwards off her stool screaming.
Reply 4
my best one was the teacher was doin the thermos experiment, and he says this will take about a minuet to happen, so we all sat and stared at it for about 10 secounds before he got bored and started proding it, it then exploded burning all up he arm and his face, they were blistering and he just sat there and carryed on teaching like nothing had happened before heading off to a an e at the end of the lesson!
Reply 6
Well, nothing really dramatic, I can't remember what liquids they were but after an experiment we just poured them down the drain... And it began to stank awfully and smoke came up the drain
Well... the teacher still doesn't know, phew!
Well... the teacher still doesn't know, phew!
(this story isnt strictly chemistry but involves chemicals)
my dad and his friend were doing engineering at uni, and they were in lab doing some experiment or other.
the friend leaned back on a table, and put his hands up on it to support his weight, etc.
what he didnt realise was that he had also put his hand in a small puddle of cyanide, which he didnt notice, and as you might expect, it got abosrbed up into him.
he died a few hours later.
my dad and his friend were doing engineering at uni, and they were in lab doing some experiment or other.
the friend leaned back on a table, and put his hands up on it to support his weight, etc.
what he didnt realise was that he had also put his hand in a small puddle of cyanide, which he didnt notice, and as you might expect, it got abosrbed up into him.
he died a few hours later.
Reply 9
My old chemistry teacher had a great story that happened at my school a few years ago. Basically they were doing an experiment involving one of those chlorine gas cylinders. Somehow the valve broke and all the gas escaped. Luckly its heavier than air so only wafted around peoples feet as the labs were evacuated. Must have been 'like' the trenches in WW1...
Someone took a catalyst out of the oven where it was drying, put it in the fumehood. As it cooled down it explosed shattering the fumehood and embedding shards into the guys arm (he had turned around). Happy hospital trip.
A bag of Lithal had a hole in it, it met water, the research dept of a strong uni chemistry dept was closed for three days and the lab was 'a write off' as judged by the insurer.
I'm no long in the chemistry thing, don't wanna die, thats for people in the army.
A bag of Lithal had a hole in it, it met water, the research dept of a strong uni chemistry dept was closed for three days and the lab was 'a write off' as judged by the insurer.
I'm no long in the chemistry thing, don't wanna die, thats for people in the army.
Reply 11
Fandellos
(this story isnt strictly chemistry but involves chemicals)
my dad and his friend were doing engineering at uni, and they were in lab doing some experiment or other.
the friend leaned back on a table, and put his hands up on it to support his weight, etc.
what he didnt realise was that he had also put his hand in a small puddle of cyanide, which he didnt notice, and as you might expect, it got abosrbed up into him.
he died a few hours later.
my dad and his friend were doing engineering at uni, and they were in lab doing some experiment or other.
the friend leaned back on a table, and put his hands up on it to support his weight, etc.
what he didnt realise was that he had also put his hand in a small puddle of cyanide, which he didnt notice, and as you might expect, it got abosrbed up into him.
he died a few hours later.
Hilarious.
(Not in case you thought I thought otherwise)
My chemistry teacher in year 9 was doing some fun chemistry stuff with the class at the end of term ... like blowing stuff up and setting the desks alight and the usual what-not
Anyway she reacted something and waited for it to explode (it was 4 years ago dont ask me to remember the chemicals)
and waited
and waited
and waited ...
We all got bored so she went over to check it and it EXPLODED IN HER FACE!
I've never laughed so much at that school.
although it was kinda harsh... oh well she was laughing too eventually =D
xx
Anyway she reacted something and waited for it to explode (it was 4 years ago dont ask me to remember the chemicals)
and waited
and waited
and waited ...
We all got bored so she went over to check it and it EXPLODED IN HER FACE!
I've never laughed so much at that school.
although it was kinda harsh... oh well she was laughing too eventually =Dxx
Reply 14
In year 11 me and 2 friends were doing an experiment, cant for the life of me remember what it actually was though. So we had the bunsen burner and the tripod, but completely forgot to get the little sheet you put on top of the tripod (think its gauze?). We had the beaker carefully balanced on the tipod directly on the flame..about 2 minutes later the whole thing explodes. Luckily it was just water in the beaker and the glass didnt hurt anyone but the teacher wasnt pleased.
I went to Kingston University recently on a school trip. There was a massive stain on the floor next to one of the fume cupboards. Apparently someone had reacted methylbenzene with nitrous acid (I think) and left it over the weekend. They came in on the monday and the TNT had exploded. Brilliant.
Reply 16
Nora-FNE
My chemistry teacher in year 9 was doing some fun chemistry stuff with the class at the end of term ... like blowing stuff up and setting the desks alight and the usual what-not
Damn. I was going to talk about that fun demonstration!
Reply 18
Haha two week's ago, my group were doing a practical based on the preparation of oil of wintergreen. When washing the organic solvent extract in the separating funnel, my friend left the stopper on. Our Chemistry teacher was standing right next to him and then all of a sudden the stopper flew off and the contents of the funnel burst all over the teacher. My friend, who was in shock of what had just happened, passed the funnel to me and then for some stupid reason I put the stopper back on. At this point, I think everyone started screaming at me to put it down. I was so confused when everyone started stepping away from me while held the funnel with one hand firm on the stopper. I felt the stopper push against my fingers and at this moment, I figured it was going to explode if I didn't release the pressure inside. Everyone was in hysteria while I was having a panic attack so I just threw the funnel in the sink and ran away from it. The teacher was drenched and went to the prep room to change, claiming his clothes had holes in it! We didn't really get in trouble though he stressed to everyone how important it was to read procedure instructions carefully, highlighting the 'carefully release the pressure in the separating funnel as there is likely to be considerable evolution of carbon dioxide' haha! 
when trying to clean the sink of bromine, (the smell is quite nasty and i was starting to feel a bit wheezy) i wanted to move the tap around to speed up the removal of it. However, i didn't realize that the tap was actually screwed on, and wouldn't move an nudge. Me thinking that it did indeed move, thought it was stuck, and i used all my muscle to try and move it. Next thing i know, the tap was being ripped off its socket, and a fountain of water was spraying up towards the ceiling.
Eventually, the mains was turned off (which took the help of 4 cleaners), and i stayed after college mopping it all up....
Eventually, the mains was turned off (which took the help of 4 cleaners), and i stayed after college mopping it all up....
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