• Question: have you ever accidentally made a deadly substance in your work?

    Asked by anon-227008 to William, Thibaut "Tibo", Harry, Georgia, Emily, Aimee on 13 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Aimee Egglestone

      Aimee Egglestone answered on 13 Nov 2019:


      A lot of the substances I make are deadly to humans, but I don’t think I’ve ever accidentally made something deadly out of something which shouldn’t have been. Although I did once make something I was never actually able to identify – it was meant to be a light yellow powder and ended up a dark brown/green sludge. So maybe that was toxic!

    • Photo: Georgia Orton

      Georgia Orton answered on 14 Nov 2019: last edited 14 Nov 2019 7:26 am


      Like Aimee, I work with and make a lot of things that are dangerous to humans. I make these things in a ‘fume hood’ which is basically a cupboard which sucks chemicals up so I don’t breathe them in.
      I did once make a very tiny amount of a chemical that was like a big molecule of mustard gas. Because it was so big we weren’t expecting it to be horrible like mustard gas but it wasn’t very nice so I decided to destroy it.

    • Photo: Thibaut Deviese

      Thibaut Deviese answered on 16 Nov 2019:


      Fortunately no but we use deadly substances (like hydrofluoric acid) in my laboratory. That’s why we always need to wear our personal protective equipment.

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