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Asked by xthatcoolkidx to Mark, Matthew, Mike, Paul, Sabina on 11 Mar 2014.
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Matthew Malek answered on 11 Mar 2014:
Breaking my wrist whilst cycling to work.
Which might have happened yesterday. Guess who’s doing his chat sessions one-handed today? :-/
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Paul Coxon answered on 11 Mar 2014:
Climbing over all sorts of ultra high vacuum apparatus means I sometimes get a few scraped knees or elbows. They don’t build these large machines with user comfort in mind 🙂
Sometimes in my research I use hydrofluoric acid (HF). It’s actually quite a weak acid, but it’s highly corrosive, and I use it to strip the oxide layer from silicon wafers. The fluorine also attacks calcium very easily, so if you get any on you, it can penetrate skin and attack the bone – the flesh swells up and is VERY painful.
Because of this, labs follow VERY strict guidelines in handling, transport, disposal etc to keep researchers safe. We have to keep fresh HF antidote nearby all the time. Some labs go even further and ban people working with it entirely.
Now, in my research career I’ve never been injured by HF, but I had a colleague who came into the lab on his own on a Saturday and got some on his hand. He ignored it and went home. Then the staggering pain started. So he went back to the lab and another worker recognised the symptoms so took him to the hospital straight away. He was on a calcium drip for a week and only lost a small chunk out of his thumb. He was very lucky, the doctors said if he’d got to the hospital an hour later he would’ve lost his entire hand!
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Mike Lee answered on 11 Mar 2014:
Matt – ouch! Hope you are ok.
I once fell off a colleague’s skateboard during a lunch break – I hurt my thumb pretty badly. but I’ve never had an injuring in the lab – touch wood.
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Sabina Hatch answered on 11 Mar 2014:
Health and safety in the lab is taken extremely seriously. Everything has warning labels and you have to wear protective gear. I think it is easy to forget the dangers around you in the lab because you get used to it and know how to be careful. I have never really hurt myself other than carrying items that were too heavy or bruising myself on equipment. Real hazards exist and often hours of training are needed to ensure you know how to handle the equipment. You hear real horror stories of people who have been blinded by lasers.
But there was one incident not so long ago, where a student (who probably wasn’t trained) poured an acid into the wrong bottle containing a base. The bottle was then tightly sealed and left on the side (not even in a protective fume hood). The student left the lab and another student came in at the wrong time without protective gear (i.e. glasses/labcoat) , just when the large glass bottle exploded. It was a very unfortunate accident and he was in hospital for a long time. But it can be easy to forget that we work in a dangerous environment if we don’t follow the rules.
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Mark Jackson answered on 11 Mar 2014:
I haven’t had any injuries myself, so instead I’ll tell you about the time I used my job to prevent an injury.
I was standing in line at the supermarket. My ears pricked up when I overheard the two young boys behind me – brothers, apparently – arguing about which was faster, light or sound. The argument was getting heated and I think was about to become physical. To prevent this, I turned around and said “Actually it is light which is faster.” Their mother replied “Thanks but I wanted them to figure it out themselves!”
Comments
Matthew commented on :
Thanks, Mike! I’ll survive, but it’s a bit of a nuisance. I’ll be sporting a fashionable red cast for the next two weeks, then they’ll x-ray it again. If all looks good then, I’ll be a free man again. Touch wood!