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Previous by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] [External] Re: [DCHAS-L] ACS Chemical Health & Safety: Read the highlighted safety work Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2020 at 12:00:29 PM Author: "Arvedson, Steve" <00001387ccc1a45c-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>

Next by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] C&EN: Thoughts on Kate the Chemist's "The Big Book of Experiments"? Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2020 10:46:51 -0600 Author: Joseph DiVerdi

Ralph,

You asked:
Is it reasonable to expect articles about chemicals written for an educated segment of the public to include information related to the risks of the chemicals being discussed in the context that they are being used?

I think that audience should control the depth of the article and vocabulary choices. The objective of the article should dictate what pieces of other information are included, regardless of the audience.

If the article discusses only the science behind the mechanism of disinfection, then it wouldn't be expected to include safety information. One could probably write a whole separate article on the toxicity of hand sanitizers, but, even then, I would not expect additional safety information to be included.

An article describing how to make an ethanol based hand sanitizer, on the other hand, should include basic safety information because it's teaching the art (to use a patent term). I would expect such article to include other tidbits of important safety information... like... don't substitute methanol for ethanol, nor 1-propanol for 2-propanol...

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/your-hand-sanitizer-fdas-list-products-you-should-not-use

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-updates-hand-sanitizers-consumers-should-not-use#products

Yaritza

-----Original Message-----
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety On Behalf Of Stuart, Ralph
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2020 7:39 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] C&EN: Thoughts on Kate the Chemist's "The Big Book of Experiments"?

** External Email **

> >The Unicorn Glue experiment recommends insulated gloves, but the photos show the experimenter working without any gloves.
>
This is a red flag for me - a picture is worth a thousand words when it come to delivering a message about expectations

On a related science communication topic, I was reading a chemistry article written for high school teachers today. It explains why ethanol is used in hand sanitizers. It went into pretty significant detail with regard to biochemistry, viral structure and the history of disinfectants as a medical technique. The article does mention that hand washing is more effective than using hand sanitizers as one down side of their use.
doesn‰??t mention either that 1) 60% ethanol hand sanitizers are flammable or that 2) ethanol can have toxic effects through dermal adsorption.

While these risks aren‰??t generated at the molecular level that the article describes, they are important considerations for the way these disinfectants are used. Is it reasonable to expect articles about chemicals written for an educated segment of the public to include information related to the risks of the chemicals being discussed in the context that they are being used? Personally, I think that a habit of an explicitly associating flammable and toxic mixtures (perhaps described in GHS terms) would be a public service that the technical press could provide.

Thanks for any thoughts on this.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859

ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu

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