- [Announcer] The personal protective equipment, PPE, worn by actors in this video was selected based on a risk assessment of the chemicals used in the experiment and conditions simulated in the activity. In scenes where the presenter did not wear PPE while in the lab all chemicals were removed to eliminate chemical hazards. (soft techno music) - Hi, welcome to Chemistry Lab. If you're a college student you may have already taken a high school chemistry course and learned some rules of lab safety along the way. As you begin college classes you'll probably hear some of the same rules you learned in high school. In this video series our goal is to build on those rules, but go a bit further. We'll establish basic principles of lab safety that you can use in any new situation. (upbeat techno music) As you move through chemistry classes you'll encounter many lab situations where general rules need some adjustment based on risk management. The steps for managing risk can easily be remembered using the acronym RAMP. RAMP stands for recognize hazards, assess the risk, minimize the risk, prepare for emergencies. Let's briefly take a look at each one. The first step is to recognize hazards. Simply put, a hazard is something that can harm you. And the chemistry lab chemicals are an important source of hazards but hazards can also arise from equipment and procedures. Sulfuric acid, a strong acid is an example of a hazard. Sulfuric acid is useful because it reacts with many other chemicals. (acid sizzling) But it will also react with your skin causing a chemical burn. The property that makes it useful also creates the hazard. And some experiments it may be the procedure that is hazardous. If a solution needs to be heated the source of heat creates the hazard. This is especially true if one of the chemical reagents is flammable. Step two of RAMP is about assessing risk. Risk is the chance of being harmed by a hazard. Even if a chemical is hazardous it doesn't necessarily present a significant risk. Risk is a combination of both the severity of hazard and the likelihood of exposure. You can think of it like this. Risk equals severity of hazard times the likelihood of exposure. For example, a solution with a high concentration of nitric acid is very hazardous since it is both a strong acid and a good oxidizing agent. It's easy to control one drop and if it got on your skin, it could be easily washed off. On the other hand, if you spill 50 milliliters of the solution on your leg, you get a lot of exposure and it could cause significant damage. You can see that the amount of the acid and the way it's used affects the level of risk. Another example would be the use of a liquid like ethyl ether where the vapor is unsafe to breathe. Using this in the open part of the lab presents significant risk. Using it in a chemical hood is much safer since the likelihood of inhalation is greatly reduced. We'll dig deeper into assessing risk in another video but for now, just remember all experiments pose some risk and most experiments can be done safely if the risk is reduced to acceptable levels. The third step in RAMP is to minimize risk from the hazards. This is the origin of many familiar lab rules. For example, working in a chemical hood to avoid breathing hazardous gases and vapors. Wearing eye protection to avoid any possibility of corrosive substances damaging sensitive eye tissue. And wearing gloves and/or a lab coat when a procedure may expose skin to potential injury. Here are some other questions you can ask to help minimize exposure. Can you use a less hazardous chemical in place of a more hazardous one? Can you use lower concentrations of chemicals? Can you run a reaction with smaller amounts of chemicals? Can you lower the temperature to reduce the risk of burns? It's not possible to remove all risk but risk can and should always be minimized. Check out the other two videos in this series that discuss minimizing risk more thoroughly. The final step in RAMP is to prepare for emergencies. If something goes wrong, are you prepared? Do you know how to handle a fire or respond to a spill? We go over these scenarios in more detail in other videos but just remember that you should consciously think about what might go wrong in an experiment and then be ready to respond. (upbeat techno music) The safety knowledge and skills that you learn in your chemistry classes are greatly influenced by the culture of your institution. As you start working in the lab, you should think about how you can contribute to this culture. A positive culture of safety requires you to do your part. This starts with the right attitude and ethics. Value safety. Work safely. Don't engage in risky behavior. Promote safety. And accept responsibility for safety. Everyone using chemicals in their career needs the right knowledge, skills and attitudes to work safely in the lab. Keep safety at the forefront in your chemistry and science education, and it will serve you well. (upbeat techno music) As you can see, there's a lot more to learn about safety than just following rules. What are the hazards an experiment can present? How do we learn about those hazards? How do we decide which hazards really present some risk to you? And how serious is the risk? For a deeper dive into these topics be sure to check out the other five videos in this series. You can find them by clicking here. Checking out the links in the description or visiting acs.org/safety videos. - [Speaker 1] Might have not been calibrated. All right, let's take it from the top. (recorder beeping) - (indistinct) go down (indistinct). (recorder beeping) - [Speaker 2] I need to plug that back in. (recorder beeping) (Presenter laughing)