Performing Hazard Analyses and Setting Triggers for Reevaluation in Lab-Scale Chemical Reactions

Laboratory chemical synthesis research typically lacks the preplanned hazard responses found in production-scale industrial laboratories. Chemical safety management is a known challenge in education-based facilities, which is concerning for academic and national laboratory environments working with inexperienced student researchers. At the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) user facility, a chemical safety management form has been developed that follows DOE’s Integrated Safety Management (ISM) process, which evaluates the risks and hazards associated with all forms of work. An ISM form for chemical synthesis is described here in detail. It is regularly used to guide chemical safety discussions between researchers and supervisors, to plan accident responses, and to establish triggers, at which point a reevaluation of the work is needed. The form makes it straightforward to know what limits researchers may work within and makes it clear which procedure changes will require a new safety assessment and discussion before work continues. The ISM form for synthesis is being successfully used in three fields of chemistry: Inorganic, Organic, and Biological. The form has also been adapted for liquid sample preparation in electron microscopy. Upper management, supervisors, students, and general users are engaged in this process. It is hoped that sharing this knowledge will enable educational institutions and other laboratories to develop similar methods to help researchers and supervisors understand the hazards as well as the working limits of any protocol, helping researchers to work more independently and safely within the laboratory.