PRICIPLES, ETHICS AND

PRACTICES
DR. MUHAMMAD IMRAN RASHID
INCIDENT
Green Chemistry
Green chemistry is the design and use of methods that eliminate
health and environmental hazards in the manufacture and use of
chemicals
desirable objectives in chemical reactions and processes
oSelect the least hazardous chemicals
oWhen synthesizing new compounds, minimize hazardous features
oDesign reaction procedures that minimize energy consumption and/or
run at ambient temperature and pressure, preferably using catalysts
Cont…

oUse chemicals that are renewable as starting reagents (feedstocks).

Renewable refers to resources that can be replaced by natural
processes
oDesign reactions with high yields to minimize waste and inefficiency
oDesign procedures that make recycling reagents and solvents easy
oDesign procedures that eliminate wastes or produces wastes that
can be recycled
Going Green’’ in the Chemical Industry

oThroughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries, little attention was
paid to the effects of chemicals on the environment (and even on
chemists, in some instances)
oStandard procedure in the chemical industry, at least until the last
third of the 20th century, was to use the chemicals that performed
the necessary reactions without much regard to the hazards of the
chemicals or the environmental fate of products and wastes.
oThis resulted in small accidents until early 1970s followed by
regulations
‘‘Going Green’’ in the Lab
oMinimize waste
oIt is important to practice green chemistry in academic laboratories
when possible as training for the future
olearning the green techniques and principles is best done
experientially in the lab
olaboratory safety is likely to be improved since less hazardous
material will mean less risk to students
What changes are possible in college
chemistry labs?
oUse safer solvents. When possible consider using solvents that are
less toxic and less flammable
oReduce volumes and amounts. Consider reducing the scale of an
experiment
oMinimize hazardous by-products and wastes: For example, nitric
acid is an excellent oxidizing agent but produces noxious gases.
Chromium(VI) is an excellent oxidizing agent but it is carcinogenic
when inhaled. Using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizing agent has the
advantage of producing water as a by-product.
Cont…

oUse less toxic reagents. For example, if one needs to precipitate a

particular cation, using anions that are less toxic, such as oxalate or
carbonate, is preferred over chromate or sulfide
oMinimize waste. Few reactions occur in 100% yield so there are
almost always leftover reagents and/or waste by-products.
Integrating the reuse and recycling of these materials into the
experiment itself eliminates or minimizes the need for waste
disposal.
Your Role as a Student
oStudents don't design experiments
oGreen chemistry is involved in designing experiments
oWork safely and dispose of all wastes in appropriate containers
oStarting to “think green in the lab” will be an important component
of your education
oMore market for safety chemists and engineers
RETHINKING SAFETY: LEARNING FROM LAB
INCIDENTS
Cont…
ABOUT INCIDENT IN MIND, THINK ABOUT FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
oIn what way did someone not recognize a hazard?
oIn what way did someone not assess the risk posed by that hazard?
oIn what way did someone not manage the risk properly, which
allowed something bad to happen?
oWas everyone prepared for the emergency when it happened?
You can use the four RAMP concepts in analyzing “what went wrong”
Incident, Accident and Near Miss
Incident: unplanned, unexpected, and undesirable events that have
adverse impacts (injury, death, damage) and consequences on health,
property, materials, or the environment
Accident: Same as an incident but over time many people have
understood or implied that they were chance happenings, being
unavoidable and without specific preventable causes.
Near Miss/Near hit: unplanned events (also sometimes called “close
calls” or “near hits”), which did not have severe adverse impacts on
health or the environment but just narrowly missed causing severe
injury or damage
It’s About Learning Lessons for
Prevention, Not Blaming Someone
NOT fix “the blame” on any individual for an incident
Determine factors that cause incidents
How to avoid incidents in future
Incidents are often the result of at-risk behavior
For a minor incident there is not likely to be formal investigation
but rather a “lessons learned
If serious injury or major laboratory or equipment damage, a more
formal investigation by safety professionals
Cont…

IN EACH INCIDENT YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF:

(1) What happened?

(2) How did it happen?
(3) Why did it happen?
This series of questions is one form of root cause analysis (RCA), a standard
procedure in the investigation of incidents
RCA generally recommends asking “Why?” five times to get to a fundamental
cause
Root causes are the basic causes of an incident that can be reasonably
identified, that can be controlled
Incident
Incident
Let’s ask the three questions: What happened? How did it happen? Why
did it happen?
What happened? A hot piece of glass tubing was placed in the hand of
the instructor, causing a burn and causing the glass tubing to be damaged
when it dropped to the floor. There were two adverse outcomes—a burn
and a broken glass tube.
How did it happen? The student must have quickly
walked to the instructor with glass tubing, holding it at the ends. Not being
aware that the glass was still hot, it was handed to her to examine to determine
if it was a good bend. Thus, the student did not recognize the hazard.
Incident

Why did it happen? Why [#1] The student did not recognize the hazard.
Why? [#2] Probably because the instructor did not alert the student to the
potential hazard (hot glass) that resulted from the heating.
Why? [#3] The instructor failed to recognize the potential hazard of hot glass, as
indicated by her acceptance of the hot glass.
Why? [#4] The instructor had not taken time to consider (assess) the potential
hazards of the experiment prior to the start of the laboratory.
Why? [#5] The instructor had not been taught about the hazards of this
experiment.
Incident
Why did it happen? Why[#1] The instructor did not recognize the hazard.
Why? [#2] Hot glass looks like cold glass and the instructor did not think a
student would hand a hot object to another person.
Why? [#3] The instructor did not have enough safety education or experience
in working with students.
Why? [#4] The safety education the instructor received did not address this
topic.
Why? [#5] The organization (college) failed to adequately educate instructors
about specific and general risks in chemistry labs.
root cause: inadequate instructor education in safety
How Might We Prevent This Incident
From Happening Again?
1. Instructors should be educated about assessing, recognizing, and managing
the hazards of experiments
2. Instructors need to know or be able to determine the specific hazards of the
specific experiments that are being carried out under their direction
3. Instructors should communicate the hazards to the students before the
experiments begin
4. For this specific experiment, instructors should not hold out their hands to
receive tubing that may be hot; instructors should keep their hands in their
pockets or behind their backs
5. The instructor should pass on this lesson learned to other instructors so they
are also aware of this hazard and will not make the same mistake
Formal Incident Investigations
There are more formal methods of analysis to identify “root”
causes of incidents that use maps to assist investigators
In these procedures the source of the incident is divided into
equipment and personnel
difficulties, and each of these is divided into potential categories of
problems. Each category then leads to major root cause categories,
such as Management Systems, Procedures, Training,
Communications, and so on.
May be a communication gap between instructor and students
May be student fail to follow or remember instructions
Further Readings about Incident
Investigations