Several years ago, The Laboratory Safety Institute (LSI) presented its 24-hour Lab Safety short course at William Harper Rainey College. During the introduction to the course, the issue of working alone was discussed. Perhaps the reader knows about this real life event: A woman working in a lab outside of Lubbock, Texas, did something that you should not do, nor allow any students you train to do. She was working alone.

Then, she did something else that no one should do. She went to the stockroom where she picked up a one gallon container of concentrated sulfuric acid with her bare hands. She was not using a suitable secondary container for transporting hazardous materials.

I worked for Dow Chemical for four years. At Dow, they had a written policy in the safety manual. “When you transport (including walking) hazardous materials, use a suitable secondary container.”

When she got back to her lab, she dropped the bottle. There was glass and sulfuric acid everywhere. Concentrated sulfuric acid is greasy and slippery, so she slipped and fell backwards into the broken glass and acid. She was cut along her spine with an injury about four inches long and an inch deep.

The woman called for help, but no one could hear her because she was working…ALONE!

Finally, someone down the hall heard her call for help. When they got there, they discovered that there was no safety shower or eyewash in the room. They had to pick her up and carry her through the building to a shower.

She was out of work for over eighteen months with a serious, disfiguring, traumatic injury. Following the story, there was a lively discussion about working alone.

One of the course participants shared the next day, “You scared me so much yesterday that I took my cell phone with me last night when I went into the lab to get some work done.”

Now, some might say that he didn’t get it. I think he got it just fine. He took a simple, inexpensive step that significantly improved his chances of getting help in an emergency.

Can you do more? Sure. That’s not the point. The point is two-fold. First, he wasn’t “scared to death.” He didn’t quit science to become a librarian. Second, he did something to help improve the situation. He was “Scared Safer.”

Being “Scared Safer” is the positive effect of hearing an accident story. It’s the desired result.

James A. Kaufman, Ph.D., is the founder and president of The Laboratory Safety Institute (LSI)—an international, non-profit center for safety in science and science education. LSI provides workshops, seminars, onsite training programs, lab safety program development consultations, facilities inspections, and regulatory compliance assistance. Contact LSI with all your lab safety questions: 800-647-1977; info@labsafety.org; www.labsafety.org.