Monthly Challenges

Participate in each monthly challenge to learn new skills and expand your knowledge. Explore the current challenge below, share your accomplishments on social media with the monthly hashtag, and check back soon for next month's challenge.

#ChemTour: Chemical Health & Safety

Get a little closer to chemistry each month with the 2022 #ChemTour. June is National Safety Month, so let’s take a closer look at how chemistry and safety go hand in hand!

From the chemistry of toxins to getting anything done in the lab, safety matters. It can be as simple as making sure your goggles fit well or as complex as overhauling a dangerous experiment. It can even be a career!

But you should definitely do everything you can to make safe practices part of your process, not an afterthought. That way, you can ensure you’re still making great chemistry for years to come!

Get to know the science of safety

• ACS Center for Lab Safety
  Whether you’re doing research, a class experiment, or an outreach activity, check out these videos, workshops, and more, so you can stay safe and focus on the science
• Safer Demos Through Safety Data Sheets
  inChemistry breaks down SDSs so that you get the info you need without taking extra steps you don’t
• Lab Life: Waste Disposal
  Know where the waste should go with this inChemistry infographic
• Five Key Questions for Safe Research and Demos
  inChemistry shares 5 questions to answer every time you step into a lab… or anywhere.
• Chemical Concerns
  Compound Interest’s infographics on everyday materials to watch out for; for more exotic chemistry, check out poisons. Get more advice on tackling p-chem, particularly for students at Indian universities

Chemical & lab info

You can’t always eliminate hazards, but you can minimize risks with the right resources. Here are a few to get you started:

• Elements of safety
  Check out these videos for tips on dressing for the lab, being ready for emergencies, and more
• Lessons learned
  Everyone makes mistakes. Learn from other people’s errors with this collection of “oops” databases. They are all great, but be sure to check out Not Voodoo, with its practical lab advice and rookie mistakes section (in case you thought you were the only one who ever sneezed while weighing your final product).
• Chemistry safety information
  Download Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), safety cards, and other information for all the chemicals you use in lab

ACS communities

With safety being one of the ACS core values, there are lots of opportunities for students to take an active role in health and safety. Here are a few:

• Committee on Chemical Safety (CCS)
  This governance committee guides all ACS safety policies, publishes safety resources, and is one of the few to appoint students to its membership!
• Division of Chemical Health and Safety (CHAS)
  Workshops, guidelines, awards, virtual journal club and more—all organized by professionals who want to make the lab a safer place
• Division of Chemical Toxicology (TOXI)
  Meet the chemists that evaluate emerging hazards and keep our food and medicines safe

Careers

Want to build in career in health and safety? Check out these career articles and profiles:

• Toxicology and industrial hygiene: Making the world safer one workplace at a time
• What You Can Do with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry
  
• Chemical Safety Program Manager, Princeton University: Brandon Chance, MS
• President, Chelonia, Inc.: John Gerlach, PhD
• Principal scientist, Midwest Chemical Safety, LLC: Harry Elston, PhD

Journals

Want to catch up on the latest health and safety info research? These journals are go-to sources:

• ACS Chemical Health & Safety
• Chemical Research in Toxicology