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The e-textbook Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students is made up of 73 sections.
Fifteen years ago, a string of high-profile laboratory accidents, including the death of SheriSanji, rocked the world of chemistry. The events made Robert H. Hill, one of the authors of Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students (LSCS-3), see a need for a stronger foundation of safety education across the field. “It sort of lit my fire,” Hill says.
Hill’s fervor was also fueled by his experience as a research chemist with a background in occupational health. He met David Finster, an inorganic chemistry professor at Wittenberg University, at a conference, and the two combined their expertise to write the book.
After continuing to work on different editions of the book for a decade, Hill and Finster gave the third edition of and copyright for Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students to the American Chemical Society in 2023 to provide greater access in the form of a free e-textbook. LSCS-3 will be available for students and instructors after its official launch at ACS Spring 2025 in San Diego during a session in the Expo Hall on March 24, 12:30–1:20 p.m. PST. Hill and Gannon University professor Weslene Tallmadge—a former member of the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety who has used all three editions of the textbook—will be speaking at the event.
Instructors often struggle to justify requiring students to purchase a supplementary safety textbook. “Students can’t afford that,” Hill says. “I think making it free will make it more likely that people will adopt it and use it.”
The culture of safety in academia and industry is very different, especially on the undergraduate level. Industry often has a zero tolerance policy for safety errors, but “you can’t do that in academia—it’s not how people learn,” Finster says.
In no way is this book intended to stop or slow down research. It is meant to aid research. Chemistry would be less dangerous if people were more educated on safety.
Robert H. Hill, author of Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students
Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students was written to provide undergraduate students with the foundations of chemical safety before they enter a lab as a graduate student or postdoctoral researcher. “This book helps you get through the undergraduate years; it teaches you the principles of safety,” Finster says.
LSCS-3 was not written with the goal of being a textbook used in one course but instead throughout a student's undergraduate chemistry curriculum. The textbook is composed of 73 sections that align with experiments and topics covered in the laboratory setting. It also focuses on teaching students the recognize,assess,minimize,and prepare (RAMP) framework to help reduce the hazards involved in working with dangerous chemicals.
In a field test of the e-textbook in the fall of 2024, almost 70% of testers thought that LSCS-3 made a difference in how they instructed students about chemical safety. In a follow-up questionnaire sent to testers, one said, “Rather than just briefly touching on safety topics in a safety training session at the beginning of the school year, the LSCS-3 allowed all of us to conduct a deeper dive into each subject area. Many of the students noted that they appreciated the real-life examples and learned more of the chemistry or rationale behind the chemistry rules they had learned earlier.”
This approach builds a culture of safety before students begin working with riskier chemicals in graduate and postdoc labs, and that awareness may reduce accidents as students advance in their careers.
“Chemistry is really important to do,” Hill says. “In no way is this book intended to stop or slow down research. It is meant to aid research. Chemistry would be less dangerous if people were more educated on safety.”
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society
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