Why Should We Do Laboratory Chemical Risk Assessments?

- [Instructor] Remember when you first started doing research in the lab? Everything was so daunting. You had to think about every step and make sure you'd really thought it through, but now that you've done it a hundred times, it's easy, right? It's like crossing the street. No problem. You could do it blindfolded. No. Even though it's the same street that's part of your daily routine, you always look both ways. Always. Your experiment, like the street, is in flux. Science that seems straightfo

rward turns out to be fairly complex. Conditions change, and even routine experiments carry risks. By assessing these risks and preparing for foreseeable emergencies, you can make the lab safer and doing a risk assessment makes you a better scientist. A hazard assessment will identify all the possible things that could go wrong and a risk assessment is a priority list of these which are the most likely to present a risk. You've made a habit of looking both ways each time you cross the street. Ma

ke a habit of recognizing, assessing and managing hazards and preparing for emergencies. These steps are the foundations of a good risk assessment and the foundations of good science. I know what you're thinking. "A risk assessment?" There are always reasons why we become complacent, "But I've only changed one thing. It's just another solvent, right?" "But I was only using a few drops of bromine." "I've done this loads of times. I'm just scaling it up." "I couldn't use the blast shield. Someone

else was using it." But nothing has changed. "But if I had done a risk assessment, I wouldn't have had time to set up the experiment." "Don't worry. My colleague did a risk assessment and I'm sure it was very thorough." Because both good science and lab safety require planning, preparation and constant attention to changing conditions because you'd never say, "I don't need to look both ways today. I did that yesterday."