The Dividends and Dangers of Working in the Chemistry Laboratory - Research Paper Example

?The Dividends and Dangers of Working in the Chemistry Laboratory: Working in a Chemistry laboratory is as exciting as it is risky. It is aspromising as it is as problematic. Chemistry, indeed, offers a rewarding career. The annual “take home” is among the best in the labor market yet life in the laboratory is risky. The risk involved could range from a simple skin cut to death. In fact, four reported death has occurred in Chemistry laboratory between January 2011 to May 2011 (The Laboratory Safety Institute, 2011). Causes of these preventable fatal accidents are as varied and are usually associated with explosion, implosion, fire, exposure to toxic chemicals, radiation (ionizing and non-ionizing), and biohazard. These accidents notwithstanding, Chemistry remains a fulfilling career and is, indeed, one of the best in today’s labor market as well as in the future. Introduction Though Chemistry is a mature and risk-laden discipline, it is an exciting, interesting and intellectually stimulating as well as financially rewarding career. Chemistry as a science deals with the investigation of the properties, composition and structure of matter, the transformation matter undergoes, and the energy changes associated with the transformation (Encyclop?dia Britannica, 2011). Chemistry has played and is playing a crucial role in conquering diseases, solving energy problems, addressing environmental problems, providing the discoveries that lead to new industries, and developing new materials and technologies for defense and global security. These represent some of the major issues that confront our society today and chemistry occupies a central position in resolving these issues. Thus the chemist remains a relevant member of today society and will occupy that position as long as life exists on our planet. Apart from the reputation of being a chemist, is the fact that with a median annual salary of $90,000, the chemistry profession remains one of the best in the labor market (Peter, 2010). Furthermore, the interdisciplinary nature of today’s chemistry, offers the chemist the opportunity to connect with other members of the scientific community such as biologist, physicists, environmental scientist, geologist, geneticists, and even government policy makers. Thus the chemist is not an isolated individual rather a well-connected personality collaborating with others to make life on our planet exciting and interesting. The nature of current research in chemistry is another plus to the profession; indeed, today’s chemistry is interesting as well as intellectually stimulating. As chemist work in collaboration with biologist and physicist and other scientist to unveil nature’ secrets, surprising yet interesting facts are gathered. Each answer creates more problems that need to be solved. This makes Chemistry the ideal science for anyone with creativity, intelligence, and persistence. As promising and fulfilling as Chemistry is as a profession, the profession has its other side. Chemistry has killed a lot of chemists even the most careful ones. Working in a chemistry laboratory is laden with risks. Exposure to chemicals has immediate as well as chronic effects. Injuries have been reported from implosion as well as explosion in the chemistry laboratory. Chemists have caught fire in the laboratory while some have died gradually without knowing due to exposure to ionizing radiation and toxic chemicals. It is worth mentioning that most of these accidents in laboratory are preventable if precautionary measures are followed. Given these risks associated with Chemistry, one cannot help but ask if Chemistry is worth practicing. This article seeks to answer that question. Discussion The benefits of being of chemist Key among the factors that influence career choices is economic & personal satisfaction, personal esteem, and society recognition (Bolles, 2008). With a median salary of $90,000, which is higher than the national $29,000 median salary, chemistry is a paying profession (Peter, 2010). According to the salary survey carried out by the American Chemical Society, the economic recession notwithstanding, the median salary of chemists at the entry level remain higher than the national median salary. In fact, the results of the survey shows that for bachelor’s degree chemists, the median salary in 2009 was $ 66,700 while for chemists with advanced degrees that median salary were better (Hanson, 2010). In fact, the median salary for those with PhD and M.Sc. Chemistry were $100,000 and $81,000, respectively (Hanson, 2010). Furthermore, the survey also shows the industrial chemist with Ph.D.s earn more than their counterparts in the academia. For instance, the median for a Ph.D. chemist in industrial management was $142,000 according to the survey, and pay for Ph.D. chemists doing computer work was $147,300. But full professors teaching under 12-month contracts at Ph.D.-granting universities had a median salary of $149,000. It is also worth noting that the salary of chemist is influenced by factors such as job location, years of experience, gender as well as nature of the job. Higher pay was found to flow to chemists with jobs in marketing and sales at $88,100 and the highest to computer-related jobs, which reached $100,000.Again, for chemists with a master's as their highest degree, computers and marketing still offer relatively high salaries, but the survey found that working in the patent field paid the best, with a median salary of $127,500 in 2009. Indeed, the survey clearly shows that Chemistry is a paying profession. Furthermore, the job prospect of the chemist is far better than that most other professions. The results of the most recent salary survey conducted by the American Chemical Society for the year 2009 clearly demonstrate that chemists are faring better than the public-at-large. With a national unemployment rate of 8.7% as at 2009 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010), chemists were experiencing unemployment rate of 3.8% (Raber, 2009). These 3.8% unemployment rates, which are the highest in 40 years since the society started conducting the survey, was attributed to the economic recession. Furthermore, the future job outlook for the chemist is expected to grow than the national average for all occupations through 2018 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). In another survey conducted by Nature to measure job satisfaction among scientists and the factors that contribute to job satisfaction, it was observed that while salary matters, the “Degree of independence” matter most (Russo, 2010). Indeed, the nature of the chemistry profession affords worker this opportunity. Chemists are usually self motivated and independent persons and most chemistry works allow for independent research. Thus chemistry is the ideal career for those seeking job satisfactions (Russo, 2010). Dangers in the Chemistry Laboratory As promising and exciting as Chemistry, so is Chemistry as deadly! Chemistry has killed many and most died in the most painful and agonizing manner. Victims of Chemistry include prominent chemists as well as those in training. For instance, Michael Faraday, the famous British Chemistry suffered damage to his eyes in a nitrogen chloride explosion. He spent the remainder of his life suffering chronic chemical poisoning while Maria Curie, the French Chemist, died of radiation exposure. Most accidents are known to happen in academic laboratory than in industry or government laboratory. In fact, reports often point out that industry is in a better position than academia to keep safety standards high because it has a clear hierarchy of power, fewer inexperienced students, and accountability to management (Van Noorden, 2011). One of the clearest differences lies in lone working habit of graduate students. A survey by the American Chemical Society last year suggest that 70.5% of faculty and 52.1% of graduate students often or occasionally work alone in laboratories, something that is forbidden in industry (Van Noorden, 2011). Most often accidents, fatal and non-fatal, in chemistry laboratory are preventable if precautionary measures are taken. Indeed, accidents occur in Chemistry laboratory when chemists take things for granted or as a result of mere inquiry, which may be part of the scientific investigation. A simple laboratory demonstration can result is a fatal accident. Indeed, this was the case in classroom demonstration at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson when a chemistry teacher pour methanol on flame during a Chemistry demonstration and two students caught fire (Kroll, 2008). The victims of the mishap are yet to recover from the physical and emotional trauma of the accident that occurred in 2006. Furthermore, certain chemicals, known pyrophoric substances, catches fire spontaneously when expose to the atmosphere. Thus working with such substance demands extreme caution. At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Sheharbano Sangji, a 23-year-old research assistant, working with t-butyl lithium, a pyrophoric compound was not that cautious (Trager, 2009). Indeed, Sheharbano never live to tell the whole story. But investigation reveals that she breaches many safety procedures and her laboratory was also reported to have stored flammable compounds in inappropriate places. In fact, UCLA investigation reveals that Sheharbano was wearing nitrile gloves, safety glasses rather than goggles, and a synthetic sweater with no lab coat. When the fire ignited the gloves and the sweater, she sustained second and third degree burns over 40 per cent of her body and was immediately hospitalized (Trager, 2009). Simple shattering of glassware is another source of accidents in a Chemistry laboratory. Such shattering can be caused by explosion due to pressure built up in the glassware or implosion due to extremely low pressure in the glassware. The former case was the cause of an accident in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1995. Shuang Qiao, a graduate student at the Chemistry Department in MIT, was distilling 1-trimethylsilylethyne when the small flask overheated and shattered in front of her. Fortunately, Shuang wore protective glasses at the time of the accident but got a cut on her cheek (Blumenthal, 1995). Some chemical reactions are highly exothermic, releasing large amount of energy in the course of the chemical transformation. When a highly exothermic reaction gets out of control, explosion is bound to occur if the reaction vessel is closed. At Taxes Tech, high-energy metal compound, a mixture of nickel hydrazine perchlorate exploded during a chemical investigation that involved a graduate student (Johnson, 2010). Preston Brown, a graduate student in chemistry at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and the victim, lost three fingers of his left hand during a dangerous experiment. Brown was grinding up chunks of nickel hydrazine perchlorate — using a hundred times the recommended amount — when it detonated. Around 25 years ago in the United Kingdom, an explosion in a chemistry laboratory at Sussex University in Brighton shot a piece of metal into a student's abdomen. The student eventually recovered but the government's Health and Safety Executive prosecuted Sussex University for negligence (Van Noorden, 2011). Recently, at Yale’s Chemistry Department, 22-year-old undergraduate student Michele Dufault, was the most recently reported victim of deadly chemistry. Though her accident is not chemical-related, she was reported to die in a chemistry laboratory. Information gather so far indicated that her hair tangled in a lathe and she had apparently died of asphyxiation in an accident (O'Leary, 2011). This recent incident point to that fact that death in a chemical laboratory is not only chemical-related issue but can be caused by laboratory apparatus and equipments. Furthermore, it is evident that Michele like Sheharbano was working alone in the laboratory. Safety regulation demands that at least two persons should work in a laboratory. Exposure to radiation is another source of hazard in the Chemistry laboratory. Though radiation chemistry is not currently allowed in academic research laboratory, exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation is fatal Indeed, Maria Curie, two times Nobel Prize winner is a noted victim (Rollyson, 2004). As a pioneer of radioactivity and given that fact that the damaging effects of radioactivity were unknown during the time of Maria Curie, She could not be described as not being careful. Her death also point to the potential danger inherent in chemistry. There are lots of chemicals whose toxicity are yet to be ascertained. Thus extreme care should be taken during exposure to these chemicals. Inhalation of toxic chemicals can also be another cause of death in the laboratory. For instance, Gilbert N. Lewis, the famous American chemist died of inhalation of hydrogen cyanide (Coffey, 2008). Conclusion Indeed, chemistry can make a man and at the same time it can break a man. Many have died in the course of working in the laboratory. Some have become maimed and disfigured for life. All this mishaps notwithstanding, chemistry remains an exciting, interesting and a paying profession. There is no career that is hazard-free. When compare with other professions, the benefits and the excitement of being a chemist swamp the dangers involved. Indeed, as mentioned above, most of the accidents involved chemist-in-training (graduate students). There are fewer accidents reported in industry and government laboratory. In addition, if graduate students will learn to be much more careful, fewer cases of accidents will be observed in academic laboratories. Indeed, Chemistry remains a fulfilling career despite the risks and is, indeed, one of the best in today’s labor market as well as in the future. Works Cited Blumenthal, S. (1995, July 26). Laboratory Accident Injures Grad Student. The Tech., 2-3 Bolles, R. N. (2008). Culture Affects Career and Life Planning. eJournal USA , 8-10. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2010). 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