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Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) was established in 2001 to investigate serious accidents at university labs. Towards this, the independent federal agency has been collecting information on at least 120 accidents at labs around the country. The study report released by CSB details one of the accidents that happened at the Texas Tech University.

A recommendation was put forth by CSB in the report to the ACS or American Chemical Society to develop newer guidelines to evaluate hazards in laboratories. To keep academic labs safe from physical hazards of chemicals, CSB suggests issuance of a safety bulletin by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Detailing the potential hazards in a lab, a safety video was released by CSB for lab researchers. This video shows three lab accidents and plays for twenty four minutes say a CSB press release. One of the accidents shown in the video happened at the Los Angeles based University of California in 2008 where a flash fire took the life of a lab research assistant.

In 1997, a well known professor at Dartmouth College succumbed to accidental poisoning which is also shown in the video. The video highlights an explosion at the Texas Tech University in 2010 where a graduate student suffered eye damage and lost three fingers.

CSB’s first examination of an accident that occurred in a university laboratory was the Texas Tech Investigation. Their recommendations however are applicable to all research labs according to the board. CSB says that at least 110,000 post doctoral researchers and students working in numerous academic labs in US can be protected by taking heed of these recommendations.

In June 2010, four people were injured at the biochemistry lab at University of Missouri. This incident is also cited in the case study report. An explosion involving hydrogen occurred here. Another incident cited in the report includes a fire at Southern Illinois University lab that resulted in damage amounting to at least $1 million.

In the report, CSB gives many suggestions on improving lab safety at universities and colleges. CSB report also makes recommendations to ACS that publishes C&En and that is an organization with over 163,000 members.

According to CSB, ACS should play a prominent role in specifying good safety practice and must put in place certain methodologies for hazard assessment and control in academic research labs. The dynamic and unique cultural nature of academic labs as of now has no guidance, according to CSB.

President of ACS Nancy Jackson told Chemistry World that the organization agrees with the fact that academic settings require additional guidance. ACS also provided details about various plans in place for addressing the safety issue within its committees.

According to Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairman of CSB, the case study especially helps caution academia and spurs them to examine internal safety procedures. Apart from this, it also highlights the importance of ensuring that labs at universities and are absolutely safe and regulated through periodic inspections. A set of strict safety regulations must be in place to ensure that there is no potential hazard.